Scotland's social justice secretary has accused the UK Government of choosing to "sweep the issue of child poverty under the carpet" as it prepares to make "devastating cuts" to tax credits.
Alex Neil criticised the Conservative administration at Westminster as the latest figures on child poverty in Scotland showed more youngsters are living in low-income families and suffering from "material deprivation" - where a lack of cash means they have to go without some of the basics considered necessary for them to have an acceptable standard of living.
In 2013/14, 13% of children - 130,000 youngsters - were in this situation before housing costs, a rise of 20,000 on the previous year.
The Child Poverty Strategy report for Scotland added that when housing costs were factored in, the problem affected 14% of children - some 140,000.
It stated: "Over recent years, while relative child poverty has been falling, child low income and material deprivation has been increasing.
"While incomes for families with children have been increasing, this has not been reflected in improvements in living standards for all children."
The figures for 2013/14 showed 14% of youngsters classed as living in relative poverty before housing costs were taking into consideration, down from 19% the previous year.
But when housing costs were factored in, the proportion of youngsters in relative poverty remained at 22%, unchanged from 2012/13, with 210,000 youngsters affected - more than one in five of all children in Scotland
Mr Neil said: "Although the report shows progress being made in some areas, any child living in poverty is unacceptable.
"The UK Government is gearing up for devastating cuts to tax credits which will hit thousands of low-income working families next year.
"It is also planning changes to the definition of poverty to exclude working poor households. The Scottish Government rejects this approach.
"Whilst the UK Government chooses to sweep the issue of child poverty under the carpet, we will continue to report on our measurement framework and will work with stakeholders to tackle child poverty."
Mr Neil said: "It is clear from this report that within powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament, we are making progress on the wide range of drivers that cause child poverty. We have argued against austerity so that the brunt of cuts are not on the backs of our poorest people.
"In this challenging environment, we have extended free childcare provision, free school meals and invested £296 million to mitigate the effects of UK Government benefits cuts."
John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland , said: "With the UK Government abandoning child poverty promises and slashing support for families, the Scottish Government's continued commitment to prioritising child poverty, recognition of the reality of in-work poverty and understanding that lack of income is central to the problem is very welcome.
"But there is no room for complacency. More can and must be done with existing and new powers to boost family incomes , remove barriers to work and cut the costs that school, housing, energy and transport impose on low income families."
A UK Government spokesman said: "Eradicating child poverty is an absolute priority for the UK Government. We have consistently argued that it is not enough to tackle the symptoms without also tackling the underlying causes and our new approach will focus attention on making meaningful change to children's life chances.
"We know that work is the best route out of poverty, with children in workless families around three times as likely to be in poverty than those in working families. That's why, as part of our long-term economic plan, our reforms to the welfare system are focused on making work pay, while our reforms to the tax system are allowing people to keep more of what they earn.
"With substantial tax raising powers on the way to the Scottish Parliament, there will be scope to make greater decisions on spending in Scotland, whilst continuing to benefit from sharing the risks and resources with the rest of the UK. The Scotland Bill delivers the Smith Commission agreement in full with no vetos. The Scottish Parliament will be given the power to top up reserved benefits and no one is going to stand in their way."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel