Debate contribution: Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Debate contribution by Ms Sian Mulholland on 3 March 2026.

MLA

Ms Sian Mulholland

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

3 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill: Legislative Consent Motion

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5434879

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to finally stand here in the Chamber in support of the legislative consent motion on the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill. Like others, I want to be absolutely clear about what the two-child limit represented. It was a policy choice made at Westminster that told families that not every child mattered the same and that some children were worth less than their siblings purely because of their birth order. It was a deliberate decision to withdraw support from children, particularly in the most vulnerable of families. It ignored the reality of family life, particularly here in Northern Ireland, and it ignored the fact that relationships break down, bereavement happens, illness strikes, employment is insecure and circumstances change. As we now know from the mountains of evidence, it embedded child poverty even deeper in our society. The LCM begins to correct that profound injustice, but it is a correction, not a cure. We in the Chamber cannot relax at this point. Child poverty in Northern Ireland remains far too high. Around one in four to one in three children here are living in relative poverty after housing costs. The two-child limit has been one of the drivers of hardship — this deep, long-lasting poverty — and removing it has the potential to lift thousands of children out of poverty, as we have heard, or, at the very least, reduce the depth of poverty that they experience. However, we are still in a time when food bank usage remains at its highest. We are seeing families absolutely stretched to breaking point by the cost of living. This intervention really could not come soon enough. In-work poverty has to be central to the conversation. We heard at the Committee last week from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation that too many families are working full-time and yet still cannot reach the end of the month in a financially good place. We know that childcare costs shape whether parents — particularly women, let us just say — can work. Insecure and low-paid work drives instability. During engagement on the LCM, stakeholders rightly raised with us implementation concerns around communication with claimants, the interaction with welfare mitigations and particularly the treatment of those in transitional protection, as Mr Durkan outlined. The Law Centre Northern Ireland and Advice NI have warned about the unintended consequences and the erosion of transitional protection over time. If families now are not clearly informed, they may miss out. Given the transitional arrangements, some could face unexpected losses, giving with one hand and taking with the other, as I have said in the Chamber before. If implementation of this is rushed or under-resourced and miscommunicated, confusion and uncertainty could undermine the purpose of the reform, so we have to get the detail right. Overall, if we want poverty to fall at pace and at scale, as the Minister has said, the ambition of our Executive has to be to match the scale of the challenge. Removing the two-child limit is an important legislative correction; let us not underplay that. However, if we are complacent and treat this as the end of the conversation, we will stagnate. Stagnation in poverty terms, to be very clear, means yet more children growing up without opportunity. Removing the two-child limit is significant, and we welcome it. We have campaigned for it for long enough, but it is not the North Star. It is not on its own the structural reform that will break the cycle. If we are really serious about tackling poverty, particularly child poverty, it has to become the North Star of any future Programme for Government. The anti-poverty strategy has to be the foundation of that ambition, and that means every single departmental budget decision being tested against poverty impact and every Department contributing to poverty reduction with clear targets, clear accountability and independent monitoring.

Today, Alliance welcomes the necessary correction. However, tomorrow, in the next mandate and in any future Programme for Government, poverty has to sit at the heart of our decision-making.

677 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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