4000 CHILDREN LIVE IN POVERTY

Thousands of children in and around Motherwell are beginning their lives in poverty.

A joint report between North Lanarkshire Council and NHS Lanarkshire found nearly 4000 kids in the four council wards are living in poverty – over a quarter of the population.

Children in Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig, Murdostoun, Fortissat and Central Wishaw all scored higher than the North Lanarkshire average of 24.87 per cent.

The real impact behind these statistics has been laid bare by the numbers having to resort to foodbanks.

Basics Food Bank manager David Shaw revealed May was the busiest month in the foodbank’s history with more than 230 food parcels handed out. He said: “Following on from that we had 21 parcels given out in just one session earlier this month.

“From a Basics perspective around one third of the people we give parcels to have families so that shows there are a lot of children who are affected.

“Universal Credit is the main problem. A benefit system that should be a lifeline for people is slowly but surely squeezing the life out of people.

“Give people the adequate means to live, as basic as that may be, not giving them the impossible task of making ends meet with inadequate resources to do so.”

According to the report, there were 1044 kids in Motherwell South East and Ravenscraig, which includes Craigneuk, living in poverty.

The number was slightly less in Central Wishaw with 1032 children but still 27 per cent of the total figure.

There were 1068 kids in Murdostoun, which includes Coltness and Newmains, in poverty with the percentage figure being slightly lower at 26.47 per cent.

In Fortissat, which includes Shotts, there were 737 youngsters below the poverty line – that’s 26.7 per cent.

Alana Forsyth is the business development manager with Motherwell and Wishaw Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

She said: “The number in the report does not surprise me. It’s ridiculous we are discussing this in 2019. People are coming to us in dire straits.

“We see a significant amount of people appealing for things like community care grants.

“The help we are providing includes debt advice which means we can assist them with rent arrears.”

Across North Lanarkshire, 18.8 per cent of people were living in low income families – higher than the Scottish average of 16.7 per cent.

A family is classed as living in poverty if their income is less than 60 per cent of the national average.

The Scottish Government’s target is to have fewer than 10 per cent of children living in relative poverty by 2030.