‘Urgent action on child poverty needed’

Tens of thousands of children will have their lives “blighted by hardship and anxiety” without urgent action to tackle deprivation, a report has warned.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s (JRF) Poverty in Scotland 2021 report warns steps are needed now for the Scottish Government to avoid missing its own targets on child poverty by 2024.

It recommends doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 a week for every eligible child under six.

The cut to the £20-a-week Universal Credit boost this week “makes the task more urgent”, said the JRF.

Some 450,000 families in Scotland will be £1,040 poorer a year after the cut, it added.

The report, “which paints a picture of poverty levels in Scotland just before the Covid-19 pandemic”, shows around a million people trapped in poverty.

It said there have been failures to tackle deprivation among families which include: ethnic minorities; someone disabled; those with a child under one; and single parents.

More than four in five children in poverty are in one of these groups.

It said: “It is time for the Scottish Government to stop walking and start running, by immediately doubling the Scottish Child Payment.”

It said: “Much evidence has highlighted the unequal impact the pandemic has had on many of these groups, meaning their current situations could be much worse.”

By April 2024 the Scottish Government hopes to have reduced relative child poverty to below 18%.

The report concluded: “We will miss that target, and by some way, unless urgent action, at scale, is taken now.”