Child Support Collection (Domestic Abuse) Bill: HL Bill 110 of 2022–23
This private member’s bill would seek to make arrangements for the collection of child support maintenance in cases involving domestic abuse.

On 8 July 2022, the second reading of the Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill [HL] is scheduled to take place in the House of Lords. The bill is a private member’s bill introduced by the Bishop of Durham. The bill would disapply provisions of the Welfare Reform Act 2012, as amended by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016, which implemented the two-child limit to universal credit.
Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 7 of 2022-23 (241 KB , PDF)
Universal credit (UC), introduced in 2013, currently restricts the payment of additional child elements to the first two children in a household, if the third or subsequent children were born after April 2017. Some exceptions apply, for example for multiple births or for children born through non-consensual conception. The policy was introduced by the Conservative government in the July 2015 budget. The government said the policy was intended to reduce the welfare budget and to be fair to “working families who don’t see their budgets rise when they have more children”. In 2015, the government estimated that the policy would save £1.4bn a year by 2020/21.
As the two-child limit only applies to children born after April 2017, not all households on UC are affected by the policy. As of April 2021, there were 836,000 households with three or more children claiming either UC or child tax credit (which UC is replacing). Of those, 318,000 households, containing around 1.1 million children, were affected by the two-child limit.
The two-child limit has been controversial since it was announced. Critics argue that it has contributed to an increase in child poverty and that it disproportionately affects certain communities, in particular some religious groups and ethnic minorities.
In 2019, a House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee report recommended that the two-child limit be abolished. It challenged the assumptions which underpinned the government’s objectives for the policy, and it found no evidence that the two-child limit had encouraged parents of larger families to work more hours.
In recent months, academic studies of poverty in larger families and of the effect of the two-child limit on fertility rates have been published. Their findings suggested that:
Opposition parties are opposed to the two-child limit. The 2019 general election manifestoes of both the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats committed to abolishing the policy. The current government has defended the policy as “sustainable and fair” to claimants and taxpayers.
Universal Credit (Removal of Two Child Limit) Bill [HL]: HL Bill 7 of 2022-23 (241 KB , PDF)
This private member’s bill would seek to make arrangements for the collection of child support maintenance in cases involving domestic abuse.
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill is a private member’s bill sponsored by Baroness Taylor of Bolton (Labour). The bill would amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 to make it easier for employees to request flexible working. It was first introduced in the House of Commons and received cross-party support. The bill passed all its stages in the House of Commons without being amended.
The Social Security (Additional Payments) (No. 2) Bill would provide for additional payments to be made in the 2023/24 financial year to help vulnerable households with the increased cost of living. It was introduced in the House of Commons on 7 February 2023 and completed its Commons stages on 6 March 2023. The bill has been certified as a money bill. This limits the extent to which the House of Lords can propose significant changes.