Benefits and pensions rise as two-child cap ends

The UK is due to remove the Universal Credit two-child limit from 6 April, while the new and basic state pension rise by 4.8% at the start of the new tax year.

Government documents say ending the two-child limit is intended to lift about 450,000 children out of poverty in the final year of the Parliament. The change means households on Universal Credit will be able to receive support for children beyond their first two children.

At the same time, the state pension will rise under the annual uprating. Official figures say the full new State Pension will increase to £241.30 a week, or about £12,547.60 a year.

Sky News reported on 5 April that more than 12 million people are expected to benefit from the pension rise starting the next day. The government has also pointed to the change in wider cost-of-living guidance published earlier this year.

The policy shift marks one of the biggest welfare changes of the new tax year. It combines a long-promised reform to child-related Universal Credit payments with the annual pension increase for older people.

For families affected by the two-child limit, the change will be felt immediately once it takes effect. For pensioners, the April uprating will show up in weekly payments from the new tax year onward.