SNP rapped for failing to tackle child poverty

A quarter of youngsters are living in families that are struggling to make ends meet, says charity group

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 5% 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 will require renewed action by government, employers, landlords and providers of key goods and services.”

The report went on: “The Scottish Government has made some progress towards loosening poverty’s grip, but has not taken the decisive steps needed to make the transformational change required for Scotland’s children.”

JRF said Scottish ministers needed to be “clear on and accountable for how existing and new economic and labour market strategies align with its commitment to tackle child poverty, and to track this over time to learn from triumphs and mistakes”.

Child poverty across Scotland fell in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but the report added that since 2010 that trend had been reversed “mainly due to UK Government-imposed social security cuts”.

Of the 230,000 children living in poverty, 90,000 were in a family where someone – usually an adult – is disabled or has a medical condition that limits what they can do. Meanwhile 30,000 youngsters were living in a family where one adult – usually the mother – was not in work, with a further 30,000 children in single parent households also affected.

Just over 15,000 children of lone parents who worked part-time were in poverty, as were almost 15,000 children of couples where one worked full time and the other worked part-time, the report added. The report stressed: “Further action on flexible work and childcare is needed.”

SNP ministers have already pledged to increase free childcare to 1,140 hours a year for all three- and four-year-olds, and some two-year-olds, by the end of this Parliament.

But the report said: “It is yet to be seen whether the expanded offer of free childcare to parents of three- and fouryear-olds will help to transform women’s labour market participation in ways needed to reduce child poverty and close the gender pay gap.”

JRF chief executive Campbell Robb said tackling child poverty in a generation was “achievable” but would need the Scottish Government to “lead the way”.

Almost one 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

Picture: Getty. SNP ministers have pledged to increase free childcare to 1,140 hours a year for all three- and four-yearolds.