By Neil Cowan, Policy and Parliamentary Officer, Poverty Alliance
WE all want to live in a society built on justice and compassion, where everyone has enough to live a decent life. So the news, released by the Scottish Government yesterday, that more than one million people in Scotland, including almost one-quarter of all children, are living in the grip of poverty will bring shock to many.
Yet these stark figures are a logical consequence of years of decisions that have been made about our economy and society; decisions that lock people into poverty such as the benefits freeze, the five-week waiting period for Universal Credit and setting the minimum wage at a level that fails to meet people’s minimum needs.
The majority of policy choices that have pulled people into poverty in recent years have been made by the UK Government as part of its almost decade-long austerity agenda.
An agenda that has had the biggest impact on those – like lone parents and disabled people – already more likely to experience poverty, it has unpicked our shared societal safety net and brought harm to those very groups that society should most seek to protect.
Yet, just as we can recognise that it has primarily been UK Government decisions that have driven rising poverty rates, so too must we recognise the powers that we have in Scotland to unlock people from poverty.
Our MSPs deserve great credit for the cross-party support they gave to the 2017 Child Poverty Act, which set ambitious child poverty reduction targets. But Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Fraser of Allander Institute analysis of the Scottish Government Budget found that proportionately little resource had been directed within it to tackle child poverty.
So those targets will remain unmet unless all decision-makers in Scotland recognise the urgency with which more ambitious and radical action is required. We have the opportunity to take such action with the Scottish Government’s new income supplement for low-income families. While hugely welcome, it’s not due to be delivered until 2022 at the earliest.
For families struggling to pay their rent, heat their home and put food on their children’s plates, 2022 is simply far too long to wait.
They need this cash boost much sooner and delivering it by using our power to top up child benefit would lift tens of thousands of children out of poverty. Leading academics, anti-poverty campaigners, children’s organisations and faith leaders have been vocal in their support for the top up.
If we’re serious about creating a society built on values of justice and compassion, these figures demand that we take this action and more.
It can no longer be enough to talk about tackling poverty without every level of government – as well as business and civil society – taking the most ambitious and radical decisions to reach that goal.
At its heart, this is a question of what we want our society to be. Do we really want a society where one in four children grow up in poverty? Where 500,000 food parcels are given out each year, and where life expectancy has fallen for the first time in 35 years?
Or do we want a society where everyone is able to gain access to a decent standard of living? Where every worker receives the real Living Wage; where the social security system provides an anchor for families in difficult times; and where every child really does have every chance?
It’s really no question at all and the work to deliver that society – and to loosen the grip of poverty – must redouble.
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