Mums take DWP to court over ‘inhumane’ Universal Credit rape rule

Mums 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 current rules restrict support through Universal Credit to the first two children in a family.

There is an exception when a child has been conceived non-consensually, but this only applies to third or subsequent children in a household. One mum who is campaigning 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 mum-of-four's 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.

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“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.”

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.”