CHILD POVERTY EXPOSES A TALE OF TWO GOVERNMENTS AMIDST COST OF LIVING CRISIS

I was delighted to participate in a debate on regional inequalities and child poverty and took the opportunity to highlight that, when it comes to child poverty, from Scotland’s perspective it is a tale of two Governments.

We have a progressive Government in Holyrood on a mission to tackle child poverty, even though 85% of welfare is reserved to Westminster. The Scottish Government has set out ambitious targets for eradicating this scourge with its limited powers. In contrast, the UK Government has scrapped targets to reduce child poverty and there is no strategy to tackle it.

While the Scottish Government doubled the child payment to £20, the UK Government cut £20 per week from those same families when they cut universal credit, knowing that when this cut was made, thousands of families would be pushed into poverty.

Across Ayrshire around one in four children live in poverty, but the numbers are rising as many families are overwhelmed by the cost-of-living crisis, as essential household costs soar and hikes in National Insurance kick in next month.

If this UK Government were genuinely serious about tackling child poverty, it would reintroduce UK-wide statutory child poverty targets allowing us to measure the progress that has or has not been made in tackling this scourge which is so damaging to those children affected. More below 👇