Campaigners said today that 2009 would be a "critical year" in the fight against child poverty.

Campaigners said today that 2009 would be a "critical year" in the fight against child poverty.

The Child Poverty Action Group is calling on the Westminster Government to commit an extra £3 billion to help cash-strapped families in the 2009 Budget.

The charity said the additional cash would help meet the target of halving child poverty across the UK by 2010.

There are currently some 250,000 youngsters in Scotland living in poverty - one in four of all children.

Progress tackling the problem has stalled, with the proportion of youngsters affected remaining at 25% for the last three years.

John Dickie, the head of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said the number of children living in poverty was an "horrendous, scandalous figure".

And he stressed increasing benefits was the most important thing politicians at Westminster could do to tackle the problem.

He said: "The key thing from Westminster is to see additional investment in child benefit and child tax credit.

"If we are to have a meaningful chance of getting on track to halve child poverty by 2010, then 2009 is going to be a critical year.

"To make sure families in and out of work are getting the kind of support they need to lift themselves and their children out of poverty, we need to see about an additional £3 billion invested in child benefits and child tax credit."

The aim is eradicate child poverty by 2020.

Mr Dickie also urged UK ministers to consider raising the national minimum wage so that parents "can combine a decently paid job with parenting".

He argued that some parents in work were still left "way beyond the poverty line" even after receiving child benefits and tax credits.

And he said: "That's about the levels of pay, which are too often very low, and that means work isn't the route out of poverty it should be.

"We need to have work that allows working parents to provide a decent quality of life for their children, and a decent tax credit and benefits safety net that protects both families in and out of work from poverty."

Mr Dickie added there were steps Holyrood ministers could take to help tackle child poverty.

He stressed it was "critical" the Scottish Government supported advice and information services, so that families know what help they can receive.

He also urged the Holyrood administration to work to remove some of the costs parents face in sending children to school.

While welcoming plans to bring in free school meals for all youngsters in primaries one to three, Mr Dickie argued ministers should consider if funding could be found for school clothing grants.

These are given out by councils but Mr Dickie said provision of these was "patchy" explaining that "different local authorities pay different amounts to different people".

And he argued Scottish ministers could help by providing funding for this and by making the grants more consistent across the country, stating: "That would be a very direct way the Scottish Government could provide extra resources for families."

He also called on Westminster and Holyrood to work together to improve affordable, accessible childcare.