Current status: Answered by Shirley-Anne Somerville on 20 March 2026
To ask the Scottish Government, further to annex 1 of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031, for what reason the monetary investment in the Tackling Child Poverty Fund as a result of the allocation of “two child limit funds” has increased from £49 million to £61.5 million, and how this fund would have been financed had the “two-child limit” remained in place.
The Scottish Budget 2026-27 committed £61.5 million to the Tackling Child Poverty Fund, with Annex 1 of the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-31 setting out further detail of how these funds have been allocated in 2026-27. This represents an increase of £49 million for the Tackling Child Poverty Fund relative to 2025-26.
The Scottish Government put eradicating child poverty at the heart of the Scottish Budget 2026-27, therefore if funding previously committed to the Two Child Limit Payment was not available, this additional funding would have been considered as a priority as part of the budget and spending review process.