SCOTLAND’s Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil has warned that 120,000 children whose parents are on low wages will be “cast adrift” by the Tory Government plan to scrap the definition of child poverty.
Neil accused Iain Duncan Smith, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, of a “flawed” plan that would end up masking the true extent of poverty north of the border.
The Tories have long been critical of the last Labour Government’s legally binding measurement of child poverty.
In its place, the new Conservative Government intends to report on educational attainment and the level of worklessness in households with children.
However, there will be no legal obligation to hit these targets.
Neil said yesterday: "By changing the definition of child poverty the UK Government is hiding the true extent of the problem and casting adrift the 120,000 Scottish children whose parents are working on low incomes and struggling to pay their bills.
"The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions must rethink these flawed plans. They will only gloss over the impact of the UK Government's austerity agenda and fail to show the shocking reality of its inexcusable attack on low-paid families.”
He added: "The Scottish Government will continue to measure and report on the wide range of factors that drive child poverty including income, educational attainment and health outcomes. Our sophisticated measurement framework was developed with experts and leading children's organisations and is helping us to understand the full scale of the problem and find the most effective ways to address it.
"Around 210,000 children are living in relative poverty after housing costs are paid, but these numbers are likely to soar in coming years because of cuts to social security. Reforms to tax credits alone will reduce the incomes of between 200,000 and 250,000 households in Scotland, with families facing almost £700 million of cuts."
He will write to Duncan Smith to repeat his concerns.
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