The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has announced a significant boost to Universal Credit payments, providing families with an additional £304 per child each month. Importantly, eligible claimants do not need to apply to receive this increase as it will be automatically added to their payments.
This change is tied to the removal of the controversial two-child limit, a policy introduced in 2017 that restricted Universal Credit child element payments to only the first two children in a family. Under the previous rule, families with three or more children, born after April 2017, did not receive additional financial support for those extra children.
With the limit now abolished as of April 2026, families will receive the full child element of Universal Credit—currently £303.94 per month for each child—regardless of how many children they have. Payments are made until children reach 16 years old, or up to 19 if they remain in approved education or training.
This adjustment means that households with three or more children could see their benefits increase by hundreds of pounds every month. The DWP estimates that around 483,000 families, encompassing approximately 1.6 to 1.7 million children, will benefit from this rule change.
Claimants can expect to see the enhanced payments reflected automatically in their accounts starting from May or June, depending on their benefits assessment schedule.