Labour plan would give families an extra £240

Nearly 90,000 families in Tayside and Fife would receive an extra £240 a year under Scottish Labour’s welfare proposals.

Kezia Dugdale’s party is trying to get the SNP administration to include the benefit boon in the Child Poverty Bill, which is being considered by MSPs.

But the Scottish Government says the £225 million plan to increase child benefit would not effectively tackle the “utterly unacceptable” poverty that one in four children in Scotland face.

The Labour suggestion, which involves using new welfare powers coming to Holyrood, would see child benefit for the first-born increased from £1,076 to £1,316 a year.

Ms Dugdale said: “The SNP is too focused on dividing Scotland with another independence referendum, rather than using the powers to make Scotland a country that works for all of us.”

The plan would put more money in the pockets of 565,000 families in Scotland and would help lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty, the Lothian MSP added.

Angela Constance, the equalities secretary, said: “We want to effectively target children who are living in poverty and will look at all measures to do so, but these proposals to top up child benefit do not do that.

“Instead, of the approximately £225 million it would cost every year, only £3 out of every £10 would go to households that in poverty.”

Ms Constance said the Government is tackling poverty through measures including free school meals, increasing childcare, attainment gap investment and mitigating UK Government welfare cuts.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale says Scotland should work for everyone.