Swinney wants to speed up scrapping of two-child cap in Scotland

Ending the two-child cap on some benefits in Scotland could take place earlier than expected.

Swinney said there is the “potential to make a real and radical difference to the lives of children in Scotland”.

SNP ministers at Holyrood have previously pledged to effectively scrap the policy north of the border, but this had not been expected to happen before April 2026.

The benefits cap means families can only claim some benefits for their first two children, with no payments made for subsequent children.

The Scottish Budget for 2025-26 includes funds to work towards ending the cap, and Swinney said on Wednesday that if the system can be put in place more quickly, payments could start to be made in the coming year – although he accepted later that this was “unlikely”.

The announcement came just over a month after the policy was first unveiled in the Scottish Government’s draft Budget.

Those spending plans already include “the resources that we need to build the systems that will allow us to effectively remove the two-child cap for claimants in Scotland”, Swinney said.

However, his speech in Stirling on Wednesday failed to mention where the cash to fund any payments in 2025-26 would come from – with independent experts at the Scottish Fiscal Commission having already advised the policy could cost £155m in its first year.

But despite this, the First Minister pledged: “If we are able to safely get the systems up and running in this coming year, the first payments will be made in this coming year, helping to lift thousands of children out of poverty.”

‘First payments could be made in this coming year’

Insight Ewan Petrie Political Correspondent

“Think big and act bold” – that was the message from the First Minister in a speech in Stirling.

He was talking about eradicating child poverty – his Government’s number one priority. He was setting out some of the measures he wants to put in place through the Scottish budget.

One of those measures is mitigating the two-child benefit cap from next year. He says he would introduce that sooner if at all possible.

Interestingly, he also said that if the UK Government abolishes it in the interim, he would still use the resources set aside for that on tackling child poverty.

He was speaking to third sector organisations and charities on Wednesday. Their response was there’s no one-size fits all solution to this – this is a deep and enduring problem and cannot be fixed overnight.