Child poverty target ‘going to be difficult’
Humza Yousaf has admitted it will be “challenging” for Scotland to meet its targets on tackling child poverty.
It came as the First Minister welcomed new analysis estimating 100,000 children will be kept out of relative poverty this year as a result of Scottish Government policies. However, Mr Yousaf conceded that reaching wider targets by 2030 was “going to be difficult”.
He said he understood the “frustrations” of anti-poverty charities after they strongly criticised his Scottish Budget, which was passed in Holyrood on Tuesday.
Oxfam Scotland said the plans, which include a council tax freeze and cuts to areas such as affordable housing, risk “bringing to a screeching halt – and if anything, throwing into reverse – action to tackle poverty”, while Shelter Scotland said strategies for housing and homelessness were “failing”.
The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 sets in statute interim targets to be met in 2023/24, with final targets to be met by 2030. These include that fewer than 18 per cent of children are living in families in relative poverty in 2023/24, reducing to fewer than 10 per cent by 2030.
New Scottish Government analysis projects the relative child poverty rate will fall from 23 per cent in 2021/22 to around 16 per cent by 2023/24, before rising to 18 per cent the following year and falling to 17 per cent by 2026/27.
The document, which models the cumulative impact of policies such as the Scottish Child Payment, indicates the relative poverty rate will be 10 percentage points lower than it would otherwise have been as a result of Scottish Government interventions.
Speaking after joining a Book Bug session at Drum Brae Library Hub in Edinburgh yesterday, Mr Yousaf highlighted measures the UK government could take to further alleviate child poverty.
These include removing the two-child limit and reinstating the family element in Universal Credit, as well as introducing an “essentials guarantee” to ensure Universal Credit is enough to meet people’s basic needs.
Asked about the 2030 target, Mr Yousaf said: “It’s going to be difficult. It’s going to be challenging. That’s why I’m also calling on the UK government to help not just here in Scotland, but right across the UK, lifting the two-child limit, introducing the essentials guarantee, making some changes to how Universal Credit is awarded.
"These actions could, for example, cumulatively, help to lift a further 40,000 children in Scotland out of poverty, so that would greatly help on our way to those overall targets, let alone the interim targets.”
He added: “We continue to be ambitious in terms of not just the interim targets, the overall target, but we would be greatly aided in that endeavour by, of course, the restoration of cuts to our budget, but also by the UK government, who still continue to hold many of the levers around welfare and other levers, to help to lift children out of poverty.”
Mr Yousaf continued: “We set those targets, and we are going to do everything we possibly can to make sure that we achieve those overall targets, and the fact that the interim target is within reach is a good sign.”
I’m also calling ontheuk government to help not just here in Scotland, but across the UK