Two mothers who had children as a result of rape or coercion by former partners have been given permission to take the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to court for being denied exception to the two-child limit on universal credit.
The limit, which restricts support through universal credit (UC) to the first two children in a family, has an exception when a child has been conceived non-consensually, but this only applies to third or subsequent children in a household.
If a woman has two or more children non-consensually, she will not receive the child element of UC for children subsequently conceived consensually.
One of the mothers granted permission by the high court to bring a judicial review challenging the UK-wide rules said: “If I had been raped after my first two children were born, the exceptions would be applied, so basically [the DWP ministers] are telling me that I was raped at the wrong time.”
The woman, known as EFG to preserve her anonymity, has four children. Her two eldest children were conceived through rape in a violent and coercive relationship that began when she was a teenager. Her third and fourth children were conceived consensually in a later long-term relationship.
“In a normal month, I can manage for the first three weeks, but usually need to borrow money for the last week,” she said. “We live very frugally and the children do not have treats or days out. This makes me feel very guilty and unworthy as a parent.”
The second mother bringing the high court challenge, referred to as LMN, has six children. She met the father of her older children when she was a teenager. He was violent and controlling, prevented her from working and attended medical appointments relating to pregnancy and birth control with her. He was convicted of domestic abuse offences inflicted on her and she has an indefinite non-molestation order against him. When she escaped him, she became pregnant by another violent and coercive man.
The two women say that, by preventing them from claiming an exception to the two-child limit, the rules breach article 3 of the European convention on human rights (ECHR), which protects the right not to be subjected to degrading or inhumane treatment.
The women also argue that the rules breach the ECHR by discriminating against women whose first or second children were conceived non-consensually, compared with adoptive parents or kinship carers, who are entitled to a child element of UC for children who join the family through adoption or kinship care orders, regardless of whether there were already other children in the family.
Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, which is representing the women and their children, said: “The families in this case are trying to rebuild their lives after many years of abuse. But their task is made all the harder by inhumane benefit rules that pile more pain on those they should be protecting.
“Social security should provide stability and support at times of need, but the brutality of the two-child limit is plain to see in what these women and children have been through. Their experience should focus minds on the need to abolish the policy in its entirety before more damage is done.”
The DWP said it cannot comment while legal proceedings continue.
