Giving help directly to families at risk is most effective assistance

Parents will always put their children first – choosing to skip meals when there’s not enough food to go around, never buying anything for themselves and walking to save the bus fare.

We are deeply concerned that the rising costs of essentials means there’s even less slack to pull on. Multiple pressure points will leave parents panicking about how they’ll afford even the basics and no amount of money-saving hacks will make their budgets stretch far enough.

This is not just the experience of a few, with more than one in four children in Scotland living in families experiencing poverty, and even more struggling to get by on low wages, this crisis is felt by hundreds of thousands of families. With the impact of the pandemic still being felt and the cost of living crisis, more and more families are being dragged into poverty.

Scotland has taken enormous steps towards supporting families with the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment which gives lowincome families with children under six an extra £20 per week. This will be increased to £25 and rolled out to all families with children 16 and under later this year. Giving cash directly to families, to make the decisions that are right for them and their children is the best way to support people out of poverty.

But implementing the recently published Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Delivery Plan will be even more critical. There is much to welcome in the plan – but we know, there is a wide gap between policies and plans and the reality for families.

The Scottish Government must use every tool to help alleviate the worst effects of the cost of living crisis in the short term and ensure we have the economy, social security and services that support families and prevent them falling into poverty in the future.

A parent sums up their situation by telling us: “You need to survive. I need food and heat for my weans. Who wants to go to a foodbank. Needs must, but it’s still… it’s the pride.”