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xScottish Government update on eradicating child poverty
Date: 10th February 2025
Category:
General measures of implementation, General principles, Disability, Basic Health and Welfare
The Scottish Government has announced plans to double funding for wrap-around family support to more than £6 million by the 2025-26 budget. The increased funding will help local authorities improve and expand services aimed at reducing child poverty.
Through the Fairer Futures Partnerships, new approaches will be tested to provide long-term solutions rather than temporary fixes, according to Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville. The initiative will be extended to more areas to offer tailored, holistic support for families. During a visit to Irvine Royal Academy, Ms Somerville met parents and pupils and saw how North Ayrshire Council is already making a difference. Support includes welfare and debt advice for parents, help with employment opportunities, and a ‘cost of the school day’ initiative led by pupils to ease financial pressures on families.
Ms Somerville said:
“Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s top priority and a national mission. But we can only do that by providing long-term, sustainable solutions, not quick fixes.
“The Scottish Child Payment, only available in Scotland, will this year help the families of over 330,000 children, and our five family payments could be worth more than £25,000 by the time an eligible child turns 16. We are extending provision of free school meals to pupils in P6 & P7 who receive the Scottish Child Payment, committing a further £14.3m to support the school clothing grant, and investing in the systems needed to end the two-child cap by April 2026”.
Scottish charities have welcomed the decision to end the two-child benefit cap and urge SG to put children's rights at the centre of child poverty work. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in its most recent concluding observations to the UK recommended that governments should develop or strengthen existing policies, with clear targets, measurable indicators and robust monitoring and accountability mechanisms, to end child poverty and ensure that all children have an adequate standard of living, including by increasing social benefits to reflect the rising costs of living and abolishing the two-child limit and benefit cap for social security benefits.
The update comes as the UK and devolved governments prepare for their examination by the UN’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) set to take place on 13-14th February 2025. The Committee is expected to ask countries about their progress on tackling child poverty.