SNP demands UK government action over rising child poverty

by Olaf Stando
Posted on
4 years ago
3 min read

Nicola Sturgeon has demanded Westminster follows Scotland’s lead and takes action on the stark increase of child poverty on their watch.

Nicola Sturgeon has demanded the next UK government follows Scotland’s approach, taking “real and determined action”, by setting a legally binding target for ending child poverty and introducing new payments designed to specifically help children living in poverty.

In a damning indictment on Boris Johnson’s shameful austerity agenda, latest DWP figures showed 30% of children across the UK living in poverty after housing costs.

Since the start of the Tories’ ideologically-driven policies of slashing welfare, including the benefit freeze, the rape clause, and the two-child cap, child poverty has been on the rise. Meanwhile, the Scottish Government’s actions to mitigate the worst excesses of Tory cuts have ensured that the child poverty rate is lower in Scotland than the rest of the UK.

The SNP introduces an ambitious package of action on child poverty

If re-elected, SNP MPs will ramp up the pressure on Westminster and fight to introduce a benefit that will reduce child poverty, re-establish UK-wide child poverty targets that the Tories themselves scrapped, and establish a Poverty and Inequality Commission to provide expert advice to tackle poverty.

The SNP has pledged to be a strong voice against austerity and will be calling loud and clear for Westminster to match Scotland’s ambition.

The SNP Scottish Government’s leading approach to tackling child poverty received praise from the UN

The Scottish Government’s Child Poverty Bill introduced income based child poverty targets – making Scotland the only nation in the UK nation to have child poverty targets enshrined in law. This is backed up by a £50 million fund to tackle child poverty.

In the first seven months of introducing the Best Start Grant and new welfare payments, the Scottish Government has made more than 42,000 grants, putting £12.9 million in the pockets of low-income families and lifting thousands of children out of poverty – nearly £11 million more than the UK government had paid out in the whole of the previous year.

What’s more, the SNP Government’s new Scottish Child Payment for low income households will be rolled out by the end of 2020 – a step that could lift 30,000 children out of poverty in Scotland.

While slamming the Tories for their shameful welfare policies, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty, praised the Scottish Government for their “ambitious schemes for addressing poverty, including the Fairer Scotland Action Plan and the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan”.

Voting SNP is the only way to get rid of the Tories, end austerity, and escape Brexit

The general election on December 12 is shaping up as a clear choice between Boris Johnson’s Brexit Britain with more austerity, or putting Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands to create a fairer society.

There is clear evidence that across Scotland, the SNP is the only party that can defeat the Tories, end austerity and stop Boris Johnson’s Brexit, which will disproportionately hit those on the lowest incomes and increase child poverty further still.

A vote for the SNP is a vote to escape Brexit and give Scotland a choice over its future – it’s clearer now than ever that independence is the best way of protecting families from Tory welfare cuts and lifting children out of poverty.