‘Decisive steps need to be taken’ to help transform children’s lives

THE Scottish Government has not taken the “decisive steps” needed to tackle child poverty, campaigners have said, with a quarter of youngsters living in families that are struggling to get by.

Over the period 2014-15 to 2016-17 an average of 230,000 children in Scotland were living in relative poverty each year, the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said in its report on Poverty in Scotland 2018.

While the Scottish Government had “made some progress towards loosening poverty’s grip” the report added it had “not taken the decisive steps needed to make the transformational change required for Scotland’s children”.

Legislation passed unanimously by Holyrood in 2017 set a number of targets for cutting child poverty – including having just one in 10 children living in relative poverty and only five per cent in absolute poverty - by 2030.

But the JRF said there needed to be more link up between poverty strategies and labour market strategies, adding without this “it is questionable whether the Scottish Government will be able to reach its child poverty targets”.

The report also demanded changes to the UK Government’s Universal Credit benefit system, warning without this “more families, especially lone parents, are likely to face higher rates of poverty in and out of work”.

It stated: “In Scotland, almost a quarter of a million children are in poverty, with their families facing impossible decisions such as whether to pay the rent, heat their home or put food on the table.

“There is consensus across the Scottish Parliament that this situation will be ended within a generation, but it