Universal Credit - 2 child maximum

Lotak

Hi there,

A friend of mine has 3 kids all born before 6th April 2017 and currently gets UC for the three kids.
She's due to give birth to her 4th child later this year.
Her eldest is 15.

When her eldest reaches 16 (or 19 depending), would the benefit reduce to 2 children or would the youngest child be eligible as the 3rd child?

I ask this because the wording on the gov.uk website is:
"Universal Credit is paid as a single monthly payment. This includes amounts to help support your children.

You can get an extra amount for more than 2 children if:

the children were born before 6 April 2017
you were already claiming for 3 or more children before 6 April 2017
other exceptions apply"

As at the 5th April 2017 she was getting UC (Child Tax Credits as it was) for 3 children.

The wording, as far as we are concerned, is ambiguous.
Anyone had this sort of experience or know the answer?

gettingtheresometime

I would assume ( & I appreciate the danger of that!) that your friend would receive benefits for just the 3 children when the 4th is born and that that would drop to 2 when the eldest becomes ineligible.


I think the phrase 'other exceptions apply' may be used to cover situations where say the pregnancy was as a result of sexual assault - wasn't there a huge fuss some months ago because of what the mother would have to do to claim benefits in these circumstances?

poppy12345

Lotak wrote: »

Hi there,

A friend of mine has 3 kids all born before 6th April 2017 and currently gets UC for the three kids.
She's due to give birth to her 4th child later this year.
Her eldest is 15.

When her eldest reaches 16 (or 19 depending), would the benefit reduce to 2 children or would the youngest child be eligible as the 3rd child?

I ask this because the wording on the gov.uk website is:
"Universal Credit is paid as a single monthly payment. This includes amounts to help support your children.

You can get an extra amount for more than 2 children if:

the children were born before 6 April 2017
you were already claiming for 3 or more children before 6 April 2017
other exceptions apply"

As at the 5th April 2017 she was getting UC (Child Tax Credits as it was) for 3 children.

The wording, as far as we are concerned, is ambiguous.
Anyone had this sort of experience or know the answer?

Once her benefits stop for her eldest child she won't be able to claim for the 4th child because of the 2 child limit.

NedS

As stated above, the 4th child is not eligible at present. Once the 2 oldest children have dropped off the claim, then the 4th child becomes eligible as part of the 2 child limit (children 3 and 4).


The phrase 'other exceptions apply' can also apply to multiple births (twins, triplets etc) in scenarios where there is 1 child and mum then gives birth to twins so all 3 would be eligible, or where mum already has 2 children, and then has twins (3 & 4), and children 1,2 & 4 are eligible but not child 3 (think about that one!)