Alison Thewliss – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison Thewliss on 2016-10-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with which organisations and on which dates his Department has discussed plans to protect survivors of rape and sexual abuse whose third child was born as a result of rape and would wish to claim tax credits in the last year.

Damian Hinds

The government is aware that the exceptions to the policy to limit the child element in Universal Credit and the individual element in Child Tax Credit to a maximum of two children are sensitive. We contacted a number of organisations in August 2015 and met with several of those organisations in early 2016 to discuss the exceptions. Officials have also discussed this issue between government departments and at wider DWP and HMRC stakeholder meetings.

The government launched a consultation on 21 October 2016 to seek evidence and invite views from stakeholders to inform the design of the exceptions and their implementation. All Ministers with an interest are consulted as part of the clearance process for any Government consultation. The consultation document is published online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/universal-credit-and-child-tax-credit-exceptions-to-the-2-child-limit

The consultation closes on 27 November 2016.