Hard work still results in poverty for area’s low paid
Councillors have expressed concern that hard-working residents are living in poverty due to low pay.
Figures from 2020/21 show 24,000 Perth and Kinross residents were in lower paid work with 13,000, some 16.5 per cent of those employed, earning less than the Living Wage.
Councillors from across the political spectrum sought to tackle the “unacceptable” situation as they approved the latest Local Child Poverty Action Report at a meeting of Perth and Kinross Council recently.
Seconding the report – moved for approval by council leader Grant Laing – SNP Blairgowrie and Glens councillor Tom McEwan slammed the “unacceptable in-work poverty and uptake of the Living Wage” in Perth and Kinross.
Cllr McEwan said: “Child poverty is increasing in Perth and Kinross - we as a council must use our influence to make a real and lasting difference.”
Labour Perth City North councillor Brian Leishman said: “Three years into Covid we have transition from a health crisis into a full-blown economic catastrophe.”
He added: “Food prices are going up. Energy is going up. House prices are going up. Rent is going up.
“Everything is going up except people’s wages.
“People are working full-time and not being paid enough to heat their homes, feed their families or provide children with the basics.”
Perth City North SNP councillor John Rebbeck said: “I see it every day going
about the ward. It’s people working hard for low wages that are not consistent with the cost of living.”
Liberal Democrat Strathtay member Claire McLaren commended officers who “on a daily basis are dealing with this grim, grim issue”.
Conservative councillor Caroline Shiers praised the establishment of the antipoverty taskforce and echoed a recent Audit Scotland report which said “longterm measures must be in place and not just sticking plasters”.
The Blairgowrie and Glens councillor added: “This is a crucial approach that we must ensure underpins our planning and efforts along with keeping a check that what we are doing is making a real difference to people and ensuring that the views of children and families are heard.”
PKC Conservative group leader John Duff, one of the Highland ward representatives, said: “We must work harder and more effectively with our partners to tackle the issue.
“Child poverty may never be eradicated but it can be minimised and we need to do everything in our power to achieve that aim.”
Cllr Laing, a Strathtay member for the
SNP, said: “If we come anywhere near to eradicating it we will have achieved something truly remarkable.”
The action plan’s aims include raising awareness and reducing the effects of poverty on local children.
Cllr Laing continued: “It does not give me great pleasure to move this year’s Local Child Poverty Action Plan, which sets out the work we have engaged in over the past year and our future focus in mitigating the effects of child poverty.”
He added: “It is important that whilst we are caught up in the immediate need and response to the cost-of-living crisis, we must not lose sight of our statutory duty and moral obligation to work to reduce child poverty over the longer term.
“I am pleased to note that this report takes a strategic approach, outlining a plan for the next four years to face some of the underlying causes specific to Perth and Kinross.
“It is good to see this plan has been informed by lived experience from residents – real people sharing experiences of low paid work, childcare issues, transport problems, accessing services and more.
“Although this feedback is often difficult to hear, these voices must be at the heart of our approach, telling us what works and what doesn’t.”
We must not lose sight of our statutory duty and moral obligation to work to reduce child poverty over the longer term
Cllr Grant Laing