There are hints of Mr Micawber in the Scottish Government’s new plan to tackle child poverty.
The twin strategy – aiming to increase the income of poor families while cutting their costs – brings to mind the memorable maxim Charles Dickens gave his character about money:
“Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 19, 19 and six, result happiness.
“Annual income 20 pounds, annual expenditure 20 pounds ought and six, result misery.”
Micawber’s doctrine is perfect in its simplicity. The challenge of course is in correcting the economics of those afflicted by the misery of poverty.
More than a quarter of a million Scottish children live in poverty – around one in four – and the figures are rising. Scotland’s child poverty rates are significantly higher than in many other European countries.
In that context, much of what the government is proposing is sound. Encouraging parents on low incomes into work is part of the answer, with a £12 million employment support fund. The Scottish Government’s new Fair Start employability scheme will also have a role to play.
But many of those poverty-stricken households are victims of ‘in-work poverty’ - that is, at least one adult is in employment, but of such a low-paid, unreliable or insecure nature that the whole family is still poor. Initiatives such as the Scottish Living Wage can make a difference, but a proposed Income Supplement to provide financial support to the families most in need is also welcome.
Ending the postcode lottery over what is on offer in terms of school clothing grants will help reduce the disincentive to learning suffered by pupils whose parents struggle even to provide suitable clothing for school. The demand in parts of Glasgow for initiatives offering school meals during the holidays makes a £1m fund to extend such initiatives a sensible step.
More detail is needed of what is proposed in terms of childcare provision. There are few measures with as much potential to make a difference as flexible accessible childcare for parents who wish to work, at the times it is needed. But experience has shown this can be fiendishly difficult to deliver in practice.
Another intractable problem is that many of the elements at play are not within the purview of the Scottish Government. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned child poverty rates across the UK will increase from 27 per cent to 31 per cent by 2021. Many of the factors cited by the IFS, including tax and benefit changes and the switch to Universal Credit are matters reserved to Westminster.
This does not mean Scotland’s government cannot meaningfully tackle child poverty, but certainly makes the challenge more complex. So thinking outside the box is sensible. Sir Tom Hunter, who has teamed up with the government to jointly bankroll a £7.5 million innovation fund believes one solution is to direct resources to successful ideas and individuals outside of “the system”. Meanwhile £2m of funding is being used to extend the reach of the Children’s Neighbourhoods Scotland project, run by Glasgow University, Glasgow Centre for Population Health and a host of partners.
Child poverty, by limiting the potential of Scotland’s young people from the earliest age, blights us all.
Scotland is now the only part of the UK with statutory goals to cut child poverty after the Conservative government abolished its own targets.
Equalities Minister Angela Constance says for a modern thriving economy, such poverty is unacceptable. She is right, but it is a badge of pride that our government is trying. Micawber’s fiscal truism is famous because it is timeless. But Dickensian child poverty doesn’t have to be.
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