Don’t let 50,000 children lose out
MSP HITS OUT AT SNP OVER BENEFIT BALLS-UP
THE SNP Government has been urged to plug a loophole in a new benefits policy that could see 50,000 poorer children lose out.
Experts said ministers should explore ways of ensuring a new £520-ayear payment is not taken off families.
Labour MSP Mark Griffin said: “It is time that the SNP listened to the experts and find a way to do right by the families affected.”
Struggling families will be entitled to £10 a week under the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) – a policy Cabinet Secretary Shirley
Anne Somerville believes will cut poverty levels.
About 170,000 children under six will benefit from December with a further rollout to families with older kids later on.
But the Daily Record revealed that some qualifying families whose child is five this year will lose out. These households will receive the SCP for their five-year-old but the cash will stop if their child turns six in either 2021 or 2022.
They will only receive the payment again once the SCP is fully operational for children of all ages.
It is understood 50,000 children may be affected because of difficulties accessing eligibility data. The Scottish Government said it needed to verify that clients were entitled to the benefit – and relied on data from HMRC and the DWP. The data on children aged six and over, it said, would not be delivered in time to launch the SCP and that it was waiting for a timetable to be confirmed. It added that the early provision of the payment to families with children under the age of six recognised that of all children in poverty, almost 60 per cent live in a household where the youngest child was aged under six.