A TWO child benefits “family cap” failed when it was introduced in the United States 20 years ago and ended up being scrapped in many places, MSPs will today hear.

The situation will be highlighted by the feminist group Engender, which has written to members of the Scottish Parliament’s social security committee who are examining the controversial Conservative policy.

The Tories justify the reform, introduced last month, on the basis that families receiving tax credits or social security should consider whether they can afford more children and should make family size choices based on their economic circumstances.

But Engender say evidence from the US suggests the thinking behind the policy was flawed. It points out that rather than stopping poorer people from having more children, it simply caused higher levels of extreme poverty.

“Research and evidence shows the implementation of ‘family caps’ are a failed public policy,” warned Engender in written submission to the Holyrood committee.

“In the 1990s, several states in the United States introduced a ‘family cap’ as part of Clintonian reforms to social security. The broad narrative around the introduction of ‘family caps’ was that they would encourage ‘responsibility’ in family planning, [but] studies failed to find any relationship between the ‘family cap’ and a reduction in births.

“Instead, the assessment of the US ‘family cap’ policies found they pushed families into further poverty, worsened health and social outcomes for children, and increased the risk of homelessness as well as other hardships associated with severe poverty.

“As evidence of their failure has mounted, several US states have repealed ‘family cap’ policies, including Illinois, Maryland, Wyoming, and California.”

The development comes as a separate submission to the committee warned thousands of parents with three or more children have turned to voluntary organisations north of the Border seeking advice about tax credits.

Citizens Advice Scotland said there had been a huge increase in the number of people turning to its staff and volunteers.

“Advice on child tax credits is one of the most common issues that clients seek advice on, with 13,363 new issues during the year – an increase of 14 per cent compared with the previous 12 months.

“A CAB client profile survey in November 2016 showed that 9.3 per cent of clients (one in every 11) who were given advice on an issue related to child tax credits were from a large family with three or more dependent children.”

Rob Gowans, policy officer of Citizens Advice Scotland and Emma Ritch, executive director of Engender will today be among those giving evidence at Holyrood.

Experts have previously warned child poverty will rise by 260,000 (10 per cent) as a result of the family cap and that almost 70 per cent of children affected are in working households.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that 600,000 three-child families in the UK will lose an average of £2,500 a year and 300,000 families with four or more children will lose an average of £7,000 a year.

The two-child limit was announced in the July 2015 Budget and restricts entitlement to means-tested benefits to the first two children in a household. Exceptions include adopted children and those conceived through rape.