GROWING UP HUNGRY
Years of cynical Tory cuts dating back to Thatcher have left many families unable to feed and clothe children
A DECADE of Tory austerity and welfare cuts has done untold damage to family finances and caused a rise in child poverty in Scotland, a leading charity has warned.
Save the Children told the Record too many families were already struggling before the pandemic and that months of lockdown had made things even worse.
The steep rise in child poverty rates began long before anyone had heard of coronavirus and can be traced to welfare system reforms brought in by the coalition government over the last 10 years.
When David Cameron became prime minister in 2010, he promised a fresh way of doing politics – what we got was years of austerity which saw child poverty rates soar.
Cameron led a coalition government which saw the Tories working alongside Lib Dem MPs after Gordon Brown was ousted from Downing Street.
The Liberals claimed some top cabinet positions but there was one job which the Tories made sure went to one of their own – the head of the Department for Work and Pensions.
Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith had become an outspoken critic of the UK’s welfare system ever since his infamous visit to Easterhouse in Glasgow in 2002.
He came away and claimed work needed to pay – in other words, benefits had become too generous.
It was a throwback to the Tory thinking under Margaret Thatcher which saw Scotland suffer some of the worst child poverty rates in western Europe.
Duncan Smith took charge at the DWP in 2010 with the backing of Cameron to deliver big changes to the UK’s welfare system, which largely remains a reserved power beyond the control of MSPs.
Under his leadership, the DWP introduced the controversial Universal Credit system as well as implementing a real terms cut in benefits and increased the number of benefit eligibility tests being carried out.
One of the results was the biggest increase in child poverty in a generation.
By 2016/17 – when the Tories’ austerity agenda was largely complete and Duncan Smith resigned from the DWP – research suggested there were 4.1million living in poverty across the UK, up from 1.3 million in 2010.
Claire Telfer, who leads Save the Children in
LEGACY Rot set in with Thatcher
Scotland, said: “Nearly one in four children lives in families in Scotland that are struggling with a lack of money to buy food, meet material needs and participate in society. “Poverty among families with children is still high and on the rise. “A decade of austerity and welfare cuts has done untold damage to family finances, with the economic impact of the pandemic dragging more families into poverty and those already struggling deeper.” “This is challenging but there is hope. Poverty is not inevitable. “Some progress has been made in the last decade. “There is cross-party support in Scotland for reducing child poverty by 2030, as set out in law. “Steps have been
taken to put more money directly into families’ pockets in Scotland through social security, support for jobs and help to reduce costs.”
The Poverty Alliance – a network of charities in Scotland which work together to help society’s most vulnerable – has seen the impact of benefit cuts first-hand.
Director Peter Kelly told the Record: “For the last decade, cuts to social security by the UK Government have undermined the fabric of our system of social protection.
“Policies like the freeze on working age benefits, cuts to tax credit and Universal Credit, the benefit cap and two-child limit have created a rising tide of poverty.
“Between 2011 and 2019, the percentage of children living in poverty in Scotland rose from 20 to 24 per cent. That’s almost one in four children growing up in poverty.
“As the country witnessed the meteoric rise of foodbank use, homelessness and families falling into debt, public outcry grew. By 2019, public opinion was such that policies had to change and the UK Government announced that the benefits freeze would end in 2020.
“The Covid-19 crisis has shone a spotlight in the gaps in our social protection system, but it’s also shown the strength of our values of justice and compassion.”
The Scottish Government has consistently opposed Westminster’s approach to welfare reform and the negative impact it has had on those who are least well off.
In 2017, the Scottish Government passed a bill which set its child poverty target into law.
The targets state that by 2030, of children living in Scottish households, less than 10 per cent should be living in relative poverty, and less than five per cent should be living in absolute poverty. Holyrood is preparing to take charge of the administration of 11 benefits worth around £3billion a year, which were devolved in the wake of the 2014 independence referendum.
Scottish ministers were meant to take control of the revised welfare system next year but it has been pushed back until 2024.
In 2018 the government unveiled a new Best Start Grant for low-income families with new babies – the first to be wholly delivered by Social Security Scotland.
A UK Government spokeswoman said: “We have always been committed to supporting the lowest-paid, which is why we have raised the living wage and boosted welfare support by £9.3billion in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Scotland has significant welfare powers and can top up existing benefits, pay discretionary payments and create entirely new benefits in areas of devolved responsibility.”