SCOTLAND’S first poverty tsar has warned looming cuts to tax credits being implemented by the Westminster government will push struggling working families deeper into poverty.
Naomi Eisenstadt, a leading Oxford academic who was appointed in June by the Scottish Government to scrutinise policies on poverty, also said the new National Living Wage will not compensate for the impact of cuts to family income which will hit as the Tories seek to save £4.5 billion from the tax credit bill.
Speaking to the Sunday Herald ahead of delivering the first annual lecture for Challenge Poverty week, which will take place on Thursday, she said: “As the new tax credit systems bite, I think things are going to get much worse before they get better for the UK. Scotland has some powers to mitigate those (impacts) but not entirely."
Eisenstadt said she feared the poorest would "end up falling through the [safety] net completely”.
Her swipe at the policies of the Westminster government comes at a time when the issue of tax credits is under the spotlight. On Thursday, an audience member on Question Time tearfully told of the impact it would have on her family.
Self-employed beautician Michelle Dorrell, a single mum with four children - who said she had voted for the Conservatives - told Tory minister Amber Rudd she could already hardly afford bills currently despite working hard and added "you're going to take more from me".
Around £4.5 billion of cuts to tax credits are due to take place next April. David Cameron has insisted that changes - including the introduction of the National Living Wage at £7.20 an hour next April to replace the current £6.50 minimum wage, will result in many families being better off.
However, Eisenstadt said the hourly rate of pay was only part of the story – with issues such as how many hours are worked, and the security of work available also having to be taken into account.
“The data I have seen is that it (tax credit cuts) is going to have a massive impact and what they are calling the National Living Wage will not compensate for the impact," she said.
“It is definitely going to get tougher – everything the Institute of Fiscal Studies says and all the work the Scottish government analysts have done for me have said the same thing.”
Eisenstadt, who has met with focus groups, academics and voluntary organisations over the past few months, has submitted an initial series of recommendations for the Scottish government for tackling poverty.
She has suggested implementing strategies such as helping the 30% poorest in the population, rather than just concentrating on the “very poorest” five percent, in order to bring a significant shift in poverty levels.
Meanwhile the sixth Scottish Assembly for Tackling Poverty will also take place on Friday this week, bringing together community and voluntary organisations, trade unions, researchers and policy makers to discuss the problems of poverty in Scotland.
Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, which organises the event, said the focus would be on shorter-term issues such as improving in-work poverty and how to use new social security powers coming to Scotland, as well as longer term aspirations to “change the discussion” about poverty.
He said: “We know the usual narratives that are around, which are informed by the type of programmes such as Benefits Britain and Benefits Street - it is the 'strivers and skivers' narrative that has emerged over the last few years...There is no doubt part of the emphasis on welfare reform over the last 15 years or so has been about the idea there are some people who deserve benefits and should get benefits and there are some who need to do more.
“We need to change our understanding of poverty and stigmatising people who live on low incomes if we are going to reach the aspirations for a fairer Scotland that the Scottish Government wants.”
Social justice secretary Alex Neil, who will be speaking at the poverty assembly, said it was "disgraceful" that anyone should be living in poverty in a country as wealthy as Scotland.
He said: "We need to close the inequality gaps that exist in Scotland which is why over the last few months, through our Fairer Scotland discussion, the Scottish Government has been calling on people with direct experience of poverty and exclusion to put forward their views on creating a fairer and more equal Scotland.
“In the face of the UK Government’s continued budget cuts we are working hard to tackle poverty and our £296 million investment in welfare mitigation measures, extension to childcare and our work to encourage employers to pay the Living Wage, is helping to increase income levels in Scotland."
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