Scottish government vows to scrap two-child benefit cap

Probably the biggest announcement in the Budget actually isn’t part of the tax or spending plans for next year.

It was Shona Robison’s “rabbit out of the hat” moment of announcing that the Scottish government would move to scrap – or offset, or mitigate – the two-child cap.

That’s a UK-wide policy, imposed by the Department of Work and Pensions on welfare payments such as Universal Credit and child tax credits – so it will take some time, and will need some help from the UK government.

It’s not yet clear what the mechanism will be, how it will work, or how much it will cost.

But be in no doubt that this is a big challenge to Labour.

It comes days after an announcement on the winter fuel payment also designed to outflank Anas Sarwar’s party and embarrass the UK administration.

If all goes to plan then the SNP government will start sending out payments to families of the 15,000 children affected in April 2026. One month before the next Holyrood election.

Labour says it’s willing to listen to ideas, but points out that there is not a penny in the coming year’s budget to support it.

They will surely need to come up with a more substantial response before that election gets much closer.