ALLIANCE join sector-wide call to double child payment
- Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
- Type: News Item
- Published: 18th August 2021
Over 100 leading anti-poverty organisations and campaigners have called on the Scottish Government to double the Scottish Child Payment.
The ALLIANCE has joined a coalition of over 100 anti-poverty organisations, children’s charities, community groups, think tanks, trade unions and faith leaders in writing to the First Minister urging her to use the upcoming Programme for Government to commit to doubling the Scottish Child Payment in this year’s budget, the £10 per week per child benefit for low income families.
Along with the other signatories, we believe that doubling the payment now would signal that ending child poverty will be a defining priority for this Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament. Although all five of Scotland’s main political parties committing to the move at May’s Holyrood elections, no timescale has yet been set for the doubling of the payment, with the Government stating only that it will take place by the end of the parliamentary term in 2026. According to the latest statistics (this link will take you away from our website), around 240,000 children in Scotland are living in poverty, and 68% of those are in working households.
We share the growing concern over the numbers of people across the country – particularly women, disabled people and Black and minority ethnic people – being pulled into hardship, with analysis showing that, on current trends, the Scottish Government will fail to meet its child poverty reduction targets. The ALLIANCE and our fellow signatories argue that the increase is needed now to help families recover from the pandemic and to meet the government’s own statutory 2023/24 interim child poverty targets.
You can read the full letter to the First Minister below.
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