SPS academic’s new research raises questions on the viability of the two-child benefit limit and its rape clause exemption
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A new report from School of Social and Political Science (SPS) academic Dr Rebecca Hewer highlights fundamental issues with the two-child limit on Universal Credit and its rape clause exemption. It calls for a repeal of the two-child limit, the adoption of a self-certification model for survivors and improved practitioner training and awareness.
The ‘rape clause’ exempts claimants from the two-child limit on the child element of Universal Credit, if they can demonstrate that their third or subsequent child was born following sexual intercourse to which they did not agree by choice.
Dr Hewer’s report, ‘The Rape Clause: How Health and Social Care Professionals Administer the ‘Non-Consensual Conception Exception’ to the Two-Child Limit’, highlights fundamental issues with the design and rollout of this exemption. It takes its findings from 13 interviews with Scottish health and social care professionals. The professionals – all of whom worked in Scotland’s central belt - were asked to reflect on their practice-based experiences to think through how they would certify eligibility for the rape clause, if asked, and whether they could foresee any associated opportunities or challenges. The report finds:
- A widespread lack of practitioner awareness: all interviewed professionals were unaware of the rape clause or their role in certifying claims.
- Barriers to access: it is likely that poor service fit, inadequate training, and demand management (e.g., waiting lists) do, or will, prevent survivors from receiving the support they are entitled to in a timely fashion.
- Ambiguous legal definitions, which require practitioners to make highly subjective eligibility decisions, potentially resulting in inequitable administration.
- Unintended legal conflicts, where disclosures made for benefit claims can trigger safeguarding interventions, undermining women’s agency in potentially volatile family circumstances.
From these findings, the report raises serious concerns about the viability of the two-child limit and its rape clause exemption. It makes a series of evidence-based recommendations, including:
- The repeal of the two-child limit
- The adoption of a self-certification model, allowing survivors to claim support without requiring third-party verification
- Expanding the list of approved certifiers, reducing access barriers and the potential for re-traumatisation
- Improving practitioner training and awareness, ensuring survivors receive informed and consistent care from those in whom they confide.
Dr Hewer, a Chancellor’s Fellow in Sociology at SPS, said “The ‘rape clause’ was controversial from the moment of its enactment in 2017, and there has always been significant concern that survivors of sexual violence will find its implementation retraumatising. To date, however, we have learned very little about how the policy is playing out in practice. What this research demonstrates is that, in Scotland’s central belt, fundamental flaws in the design and rollout of the rape clause are likely to undermine its fair, consistent, and equitable administration on a systemic level.
“Importantly, this research focuses on a small number of professionals working in largely urban contexts in Scotland. More work will need to be done to understand the broad implications of its findings, and to explore possible variations across different contexts. Nonetheless, this research should sensitise UK policy actors to some very concerning possibilities: that professionals were not properly informed of their approved third-party status; that professionals feel (or are) unqualified to decide between what does and does not constitute rape; that competing statutory obligations may necessitate the kind of invasive questioning that rape clause claimants were promised would not occur.”