Katy, a mum to three boys, lives with her partner in South Wales. Katy is currently unable to work because she suffers from depression, and her partner does not work full time so he can help care for their young baby and their older children (aged 12 and 7). Katy only heard about the two-child limit when she was already pregnant with her youngest child.
With her youngest child only a couple of months old at the time we spoke to her, Katy was managing but worried about the future when her baby son would become more expensive, needing food, new clothes and other items. With £900 of Universal Credit to get by each month after their rent is paid, Katy and her partner were already cutting back to afford the essentials for their children, and have borrowed money from family members to buy basics when their money did not stretch far enough: ‘By the time you pay all the bills and you buy food shopping, if you need anything else throughout the week, sometimes it doesn’t last…. If you need anything else, like… milk, bread, just bits and pieces, sometimes we have had to borrow money off people, family’.
This situation makes Katy feel stressed and anxious, though she is determined to protect her children from her worries: ‘You can be a little bit down sometimes, can’t you, if you can’t get the things you need for yourself like that, but you’ve just got to plough through. As long as the kids are happy, that’s the main thing’.
If the two-child limit were removed Katy feels that it would alleviate worries about affording about food and clothing for the children. The extra money could also be put towards childcare to help her partner work.
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