Swinney accepts Scotland has ‘got to do more’ on child poverty

Scotland has “obviously got to do more” to tackle child poverty, John Swinney said as a report warned a key target will be missed by a “wide margin” without action from the Scottish Government.

The First Minister said that “combined and comprehensive actions” must be taken in response to the problem  undertaken as he pledged to give “emphatic political leadership to ensure we eradicate child poverty”.

Action to help eradicate child poverty will be “integral to the Government’s programme”, Mr Swinney said, adding this work would also be “integral” in the SNP’s policy proposals for next year’s Holyrood elections.

His comments came after independent experts at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation think tank warned Scotland “remains far” from achieving the target of cutting child poverty levels to 10% by 2030-31.

The interim target, to reduce child poverty to 18% by 2024-25 was missed and Chris Birt, Joseph Rowntree Foundation associate director for Scotland, said politicians must now have “the courage to act boldly” when tackling the problem.

The foundation’s report shows about one in four children remains in poverty, and levels of poverty are “largely the same” as they were at the start of the current parliamentary session in 2021.

However, Mr Swinney insisted child poverty levels in Scotland are falling – highlighting the impact of policies such as the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment in achieving this.

He described that payment, made to families on a low income, as being an “anti-poverty payment available in Scotland and no other part of the United Kingdom”.

The First Minister added that the Scottish Government has “taken a number of steps which are resulting in us seeing a falling level of child poverty in Scotland while child poverty is rising in the rest of the United Kingdom”.

As well as the Scottish Child Payment, Mr Swinney highlighted the impact of expanded early learning and childcare for pre school children, and increases in the free school meal programme.

But the First Minister added: “We’ve obviously got to do more to succeed in the journey of eradicating child poverty, that will involve us taking steps, for example, to lift the two-child limit in March of next year.”

He also said the Scottish Government has “obviously got to formulate additional plans to ensure we can be successful in our mission of eradicating child poverty, that remains the absolute focus of the Government’s programme”.

But there had been speculation Chancellor Rachel Reeves could remove the cap, which means families can only claim some benefits for their first two children and not for any subsequent offspring.

Mr Swinney insisted that scrapping the policy, which was first introduced by the Tories, was an “urgent priority and necessity”.

He said: “It should have been one of the first actions of a Labour government, but that is not what has happened.

“We’re hearing lots of speculation, of course, but we need to see that actually happen.

“And I would encourage the Chancellor to get on with it and make that an urgent priority, because that will help to lift children out of poverty and that will reinforce the efforts being taken by the Scottish Government.”

However, he stressed that regardless of what the Chancellor does, the Scottish Government will “make sure we can successfully lift the two-child limit in March of next year”.

In response to Mr Swinney’s calls for the Chancellor to lift the cap, a UK Government spokesperson said: “We are working closely with and supporting the Scottish Government through the largest, real-terms settlement in the history of devolution.

“The Government is determined to bring down child poverty. We’ve already uprated benefits, increased the national minimum wage and are supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a fair repayment rate on Universal Credit deductions.

“We will publish an ambitious child poverty strategy later this year to ensure we deliver fully-funded measures that tackle the structural and root causes of child poverty across the country.”