Invest in social security to meet child poverty target, says think tank

The Scottish Government should invest more in social security to meet its child poverty target for the end of the decade, a think tank has said.

First Minister John Swinney has made eradicating child poverty his key mission in power.

The Government will publish figures this week showing if it hit its interim target of reducing child poverty to 18% or less.

The previous statistics, released last year, put the rate at 24% but, speaking to the PA news agency in December, Mr Swinney said he was confident of meeting the aim.

By 2030, the Government hopes to reduce child poverty rates below 10% but to do that the IPPR Scotland think tank has said, in a new briefing paper, ministers must spend more money.

One of the proposals includes the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment at a cost of £500 million by 2030.

According to the 23-page document, if the benefit increased by inflation until the end of the decade, it would sit at £30.30 per week, which the IPPR said should be increased to £60.60 per week.

The recommendation comes against a backdrop of cuts to the UK Government’s benefits spending, with Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall announcing this week £5 billion of changes to the welfare system, which will have an impact on the Scottish Government’s budget.

In the report, the think tank said: “Given that, even with heroic assumptions on increased parental earnings, the child poverty target will be missed, it is clear that additional resource will need to be targeted directly to families if the target is to be hit.

“We have explored this by modelling the impact of doubling the Scottish Child Payment.

“Our baseline assumption is that the value of the SCP tracks inflation to reach £30.30 per child in 2030, so in our doubled-value scenario we model it at £60.60.”

Dave Hawkey, a senior research fellow at the think tank and the author of the report, said: “Scotland is at a crossroads and must decide whether it is willing to take the necessary steps to eradicate child poverty – there is surely only one option.

“The social security system is an important safety net to catch families when hard times hit but this is not its only role.

“Even when adults are working, many families need financial support to make ends meet.

“Child benefit and universal credit have a vital role to play, plugging a gap that the labour market cannot and ensuring that children have what they need to grow up healthy and secure.

“The Scottish Government is in the early stages of developing its next child poverty delivery plan to cover the period up to 2030.

“It needs to set out the actions the Scottish Government will take to reduce child poverty and the impact they will have.

“The evidence is clear: to meet Scotland’s legal child poverty target, Scotland must commit additional fiscal resource to our shared priority of giving every child in Scotland a good start in life.”

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “We are absolutely committed to meeting the 2030 child poverty targets, and will continue to do everything we can to deliver the change needed.

“Measures like the Scottish Child Payment which is forecast to benefit the families of over 330,000 children in 2025-26, are having a real impact – and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has suggested that Scotland will be the only part of the UK to see child poverty fall.

“However we know there is more to do and our efforts are being undermined by the social security policies of the UK Government and policies like the two-child limit which is increasing poverty and hardship for many families.

“That is why in the coming financial year we will develop the systems necessary to effectively scrap the impact of the two-child cap in 2026 – which will lift thousands of children in Scotland out of poverty.”