Budget cuts ‘will hit anti-poverty plans’
SCOTTISH Government budget cuts will make it difficult to meet targets to take tens of thousands of children out of poverty in Glasgow, it has been warned.
Cosla, which represents local councils across Scotland, said cuts will hit the very services that are needed to reduce child poverty. In Glasgow there are around 37,000 children in poverty – one in three.
The Scottish Government target in the Child Poverty Act is to reduce child poverty to one in 10 by 2030.
That would mean reducing the Glasgow figure to around 11,000, even though current projections are that the number will rise to 50,000 in a few years as a result of UK welfare reforms.
Cosla is warning the draft budget presented by Kate Forbes, who has since been promoted to Finance Secretary, will take hundreds of millions of pounds from councils.
The Glasgow City Council budget last week agreed a cut of £7.6 million to social work services, which unions have warned will hit services dedicated to children and older people.
Now Cosla says failure to invest will lead to a new generation consigned to a life of poverty and put the 2030 targets at risk.
It said the Scottish budget would result in a £95m cut to revenue and £117m reduction to capital funds – £300m and £130m respectively in real terms.
Cosla’s children and young people spokesman Stephen McCabe said: “Scottish and local government are supposed to have a joint priority to tackle child poverty in all forms.
“Councils lobbied the government hard to address our concerns over child poverty by investing in the essential services that councils deliver – from social work services that support families to work through complex, deep-rooted issues to holiday lunch clubs that provide food and vital links to other services such as employability, income maximisation and housing.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Budget also included a £3.4 billion allocation to our new social security system for benefit spend.
“Our Best Start Grant offers financial support to low-income families in the early years of a child’s life and we will introduce the Scottish Child Payment for children under six by the end of the year.
“The payment has the potential to lift 30,000 children out of poverty when fully rolled out.”