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xThe Scottish Budget 2026-27
Date: 20th January 2026
Category:
Scottish Government has published its budget for 2026-27, which for many families with children carries a message of targeted support amid continuing financial pressures and tight public finances.
A key theme of the budget is tackling child poverty, a long-standing priority for the Scottish Government. It includes a £61.5 million contribution to their Tackling Child Poverty fund and a new £50 million whole-family support package that will back local community services. Furthermore, Scottish Government has announced it will publish its Tackling Child Poverty Deliver Plan come March 2026.
The budget also states that Scottish Child Payment will increase to £28.20 per week per child in 2026–27, in line with inflation, delivering more regular support to low-income families. They will also introduce a premium element, raising the payment to £40 per week for eligible families with children under one year old, scheduled for 2027-28. This does fall short of calls made by One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS), who had suggested a minimum payment of £40 a week, with further increases on that for single parent families, families with disabled children and families with children under one year.
OPFS also made calls to fund better support for parents using the Child Maintenance Service and income-maximisation services as well as increasing the value of the School Clothing Grant so that it covers the real cost of school clothing and ensure this includes auto-enrolment for families in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, along with annual inflationary uplifts in line with other Scottish social security payments. In the budget, while there is no specific commitment to either, Scottish Government stresses its commitment to eradicate child poverty and to fund equal opportunity access to income services for all.
Further, OPFS called for free school meals for all primary school pupils and commitment to introducing universal free school meals for all secondary school pupils, reducing costs and stigma for families. Magic Breakfast also declared their wish for this budget to build on previous successes in funding free breakfast for all school aged children and young people. The Budget stipulates universal breakfast clubs in all primary and special needs schools by August 2027 aiming to ensure every child starts the day nourished and keeps the ongoing commitment to free school meals for P1-P5 pupils, however, does not involve specific commitments for free meals for secondary school pupils. Still, the budget shows an increase from £3 million to £15 million pounds to guarantee funding for the planned breakfast clubs.
The Child Rights and Wellbeing Impact Assessment (CRWIA) accompanying the budget, noted the recommendations made by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2023 and did not identify any concerns with the budget and goals for children’s rights in Scotland.
The impacts of the decisions around specific budget allocation on children’s rights and wellbeing are assessed in the separate CRWIA for the Budget Statement which was published in the Strategic Integrated Impact Assessment on 19th January 2026.