SNP authorities to raise two-child profit cap in Scotland in £800m Budget social safety spending splurge alongside main money enhance for NHS and public sector staff

The SNP Government in Scotland will seek to scrap the two-child benefit cap as part of a massive £800million Budget increase in social security spending. 

Finance Secretary Shona Robison today attempted to put huge pressure on Scottish  Labour by scrapping the per-child limit on how much taxpayers’ cash is handed to parents by 2026.

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to lift the controversial cap in England and Wales, and suspended seven left wing Labour MPs earlier this year after they backed an SNP move in Westminster to abolish it. 

Ms Robison also unveiled a record funding settlement of £21 billion next financial year for the NHS – an increase of £2billion –  after a major report this week warned it was on the brink of collapse in Scotland.

She also unveiled plans to put public sector pay on a ‘sustainable footing’ with a flexible increase of 9 per cent above inflation over the next three years.

It comes as the SNP was warned not to increase the tax burden on families as the economy struggles. 

She revealed the Budget would contain an additional £800 million in social security benefits in 2025/26 and pledged a substantial sum for housing, including £768 million for 8,000 affordable homes.’

And as is customary for the independence-supporting SNP, she took aim at Westminster cash for Scotland, blasting Chancellor Rachel Reeves over the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

Finance Secretary Shona Robison today attempted to put huge pressure on Scottish Labour by scrapping the per-child limit on how much taxpayers’ cash is handed to parents.

And as is customary for the independence-supporting SNP, she took aim at Westminster cash for Scotland, blasting Chancellor Rachel Reeves over the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs).

‘This hike will add well over £700 million to the cost of delivering public services,’ she said. 

‘Despite this, the UK Government seems to be saying they will only reimburse less than half of that cost.’

She continued: ‘Services in Scotland should not have to suffer. The Chancellor should pay the full price for her own decisions.’

Ministers north of the border have hit out at the benefit cap for years, and more than 100 MPs from all parties signed Commons motions calling for the cap to be scrapped earlier this year. 

Announced in 2015 by the Tories, it prevents parents from claiming child tax credit or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 2017.

Its supporters say it is unfair for taxpayers to subsidise parents having large families that they can’t themselves afford.

However, its critics say the measure has fuelled child poverty.

Ms Robison urged the UK Government to provide the necessary data to allow for the change to be made.

‘Be in no doubt that the cap will be scrapped,’ she told MSPs.

‘My challenge to Labour is to work with us – join us in ending the cap in Scotland, give us the information that we need.

‘But either way, let me be crystal clear, this Government is to end the two-child cap and in doing so will lift over 15,000 Scottish children out of poverty.’