Scotland's cost of living crisis
The current cost-of-living crisis affects almost everyone in Scotland. None more so than children already living in the grip of poverty. When a crisis stretches low incomes to breaking point, like the current economic crisis is doing, children suffer. When the freezing months roll in and parents cannot afford to turn on the heating, their children will suffer. When energy, rent, and food bills are so high they swallowed up a family’s budget budget long before their next paycheque is due, children suffer.
Governments must act
At Save the Children we do not believe this suffering is inevitable. Governments can, and must, do more.
The effects of the cost-of-living crisis are so acute that only emergency intervention from the UK and Scottish Governments can adequately mitigate its effects. And the stark reality is that the magnitude of the current crisis is so great, the suffering children will endure in the short and longer-term is unthinkable if solutions are not implemented urgently.
As of July 2022, the UK inflation rate was 10.1 percent, driven largely by the £693 increase of the energy price cap on 1 April 2022. This has seen families paying around an extra £120 per month for gas and electricity, £65 per month extra for childcare, and £90 per month extra for travel.
“My daughter always asks why we have to walk, why we can’t pay for the bus? 80 pence for her and £1.70 for a single ticket, I say I can’t afford to pay anything, even for the transport.”
The families we work with who are already experiencing poverty have told us that their soaring bills are simply unaffordable. When before the crisis many families had to choose between heating or eating, they now find themselves unable to afford to do either. There is simply nothing left to cut back on.
The deepening crisis
The new Prime Minister recently announced energy costs will be capped at £2,5000 and will be frozen at this level for two years. Freezing bills will proivde some much-needed stability and the new energy price cap will potentially save families thousands of pounds. However, £2,500 still represents a stagarring increase in energy bills compared to 2021 when many families were already unable to afford to switch on their heating.
Parents we spoke to last week told us:
“[We’ll be] wearing extra layers of clothing to try and reduce using the heating. My daughters room only has laminate flooring, we’re going to try to use the carers allowance to get a carpet for her room… we need to keep her room as warm as we can”
Foodbanks are anticipating they will run out of supplies due to increased demand for food parcels and are calling for donation of food which does not require must cooking because parents cannot afford to use their cookers.
This is unacceptable. The stark forecasts about the shattering impact on children cannot be allowed to materialise.
“It’s really, really important that the Governments could do more, we are asking for more... because this is not the end it is just the beginning.”
The 4 Emergency Actions
In a new briefing we published last week, we laid out four key emergency actions the Scottish Government must take now to help protect children in poverty from the impacts of the crisis. These asks were developed alongside a range of partners in Scotland.
Double the planned “bridging payments” for families with children in receipt of free school meals (but not yet eligible for the Scottish Child Payment) from £130 to £260.
Make a further one-off payment to all recipients of the SCP of £260 in early 2023
Double Child Winter Heating Assistance to £418.20.
Boost the value and administrative responsiveness of the Scottish Welfare Fund.
While we need emergency action now, building resilience into family budgets, so they have a financial buffer against any future economic crisis, should be a medium-to-long-term priority for the Scottish and UK Government. Children are suffering right now, and things are only going to get worse. The impacts of the current cost-of-living crisis on children in Scotland cannot be understated. For the children worst impacted, nothing short of urgent, far-reaching emergency support that adequately addresses the challenges faced, will do.
Read the full briefing at savethechildren.org.uk/content/dam/gb/reports/briefing-august-costofliving.pdf.
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