Together joins calls to double Scottish Child Payment

Date: 20th August 2021
Category: Child poverty

4.jpg

As part of the End Child Poverty coalition in Scotland, Together joins 120 organisations and leaders from across Scotland to call for doubling the Scottish Child Payment. This is the single most impactful action that could be taken to help meet the interim child poverty targets in 2023. It would signal that ending child poverty is a defining priority for this Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament.

One in four children across Scotland is living in poverty and with the impact of COVID-19, this statistic is likely to become starker if action is not taken. If Scottish Child Payment were to stay the same, it will reduce poverty in Scotland by between two and three percent. This could leave child poverty rates as high as 26% in 2023/24, when the interim target in legislation for that year is 18%. This cannot happen. The End Child Poverty Coalition has written a letter to Scotland’s First Minister to act quickly and decisively in doubling the payment now.