Scandal of the 28,000 children going hungry at the holidays
Labour claim Budget will fail kids
A shocking 28,059 Scottish schoolchildren will go hungry over the Christmas holidays, it has been claimed.
Scottish Labour have based the figure on the percentage of kids forced to join a scheme in one council area to provide food outside of term time.
And leader Richard Leonard has said the statistic should prompt changes to the Scottish Government’s draft budget, which has also been criticised by anti-poverty charities.
He said :“It’ s simply unacceptable that in a rich country like Scotland, children will face holiday hunger over the Christmas and New Year break.
“That should make clear that Tory austerity has failed comprehensively. In North Lanarkshire, the council are taking groundbreaking steps to tackle the scourge of holiday hunger with the Club 365 scheme offering free school meals every day of the year. “This should be rolled out across the country as part of a wider commitment to eradicating poverty.
“Finance Secretary Derek Mac kay should look at these figures and deliver significant changes, such as an end to the £319million worth of cuts he plans to force on councils and a commitment to finally using the powers over social security in this parliament to increase child benefit and protect people from the two- child cap on tax credits.”
Seven per cent of all primary school pupils in Coatbridge, Wishaw, Bells hill and Viewpark attend Club 365.
Registration for free school meals in the target area is 54 per cent compared to 53 per cent for the whole of Scotland.
Labour used the figures to estimate how many kids across the country would be likely to need a similar service.
Mackay promised an extra £ 50million to tackle child poverty in his proposals.
But Neil Cowan, of the Poverty Alliance, said: “One million people in Scotland, including 230,000 children, are living in the grip of poverty and this budget offered the opportunity to take action. We along with other anti- poverty groups, chi ldren’s charities, trade unions and faith leaders have been cal l ing on the Scottish Government to bring forward the delivery of the new income supplement, due to be int roduced by 2 0 22 , and to deliver the supplement by topping up child benefit.”
In November, the Poverty and Inequality Commission called for new benefits to eradicate holiday hunger.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “No child should go hungry and Scotland is the only part of the UK to have ambitious targets to reduce and ult imately eradicate child poverty. That is why we are increasing our Fair Food Fund to £ 3.5million next year with £ 2million specif ically to tackle food insecurity during school holidays.”
They said they have called on the Tories to scrap the two-child cap and added: “The sooner all welfare powers are devolved the better.”