Mothers lose Court of Appeal battle to overturn child benefit cap rule

Two mothers have lost a second bid to challenge previous rules around the so-called rape clause of the two-child benefit cap at the Court of Appeal. The cap, which was removed in April, previously had an exception which allowed universal credit recipients to claim benefits for more than two children, but only if the third or subsequent children were conceived non-consensually.

This left some women ineligible for the exception, including those whose first two children were conceived in rape but whose further children were conceived consensually. The two mothers affected by the previous rules lost a High Court challenge against the Department for Work and Pensions in July last year, with Mrs Justice Collins Rice saying the issue was a policy question and not for a court to decide.

The women took the case to the Court of Appeal, with their barristers telling a hearing last month that the previous rules were not justified. However, on Thursday, three senior judges unanimously dismissed the appeal. Lord Justice Lewis, sitting with Lady Justice Andrews and Sir Stephen Cobb, found that although both women had been the subject of horrific violent and abusive behaviour, the provisions were proportionate and justified.

One of the women conceived her two eldest children through rape and was told she could not claim the benefit for her third and fourth children, both of whom were conceived consensually in a later long-term relationship. She was initially paid the child element of universal credit for the third child, but this was rescinded after the fourth child was born.

The second woman is a mother of six who was subjected to domestic abuse and violent and coercive behaviour by former partners. The cap was introduced by the Conservatives in 2017. The Government announced last year that it would scrap the policy. Its removal is expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty. The Tories said in March that they would reintroduce the cap if re-elected and use the money to boost defence spending.