In the run up to the Scottish budget, which was published on Thursday 15th December, Save the Children’s Invest in Children campaign highlighted just some of the harrowing stories of hardship we’ve been hearing from parents in poverty this winter.
“Do I put heating on, or do I pay for food?” (Parent in Scotland, November 2022)
We highlighted these stories to encourage the Scottish Government to make sure that decisions taken in the budget would both support families through the cost-of-living crisis and help Scotland meet its statutory child poverty reduction targets by 2030.
At such a challenging time, we were pleased to see the Scottish Government’s 2023/24 budget protecting and prioritising families and holding firm on the commitment to eradicate child poverty. We strongly welcome all commitments that support families to move out of poverty.
Firstly, we welcome that much-needed funds will be raised through changes to the taxation framework in Scotland. We all want to live in a fair society where children are not going hungry and where families can heat their homes. It is right that those who are able should contribute more to achieving that ambition. We can’t afford not to invest in the key services that families and children on lower incomes rely on.
We were also pleased to see that more cash will be going into families' pockets with most Scottish family benefits, like Best Start Grants and Child Winter Heating Assistance, rising in line with September’s inflation rate of 10.1% from April 2023. This will provide much-needed support to struggling families, as will other welcome announcements, like sustaining investment in the Baby Box and 1140 hours of free early learning and childcare.
Despite these welcome announcements, we are disappointed to see that the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) will not rise in line with inflation in the coming year.
The SCP is the Scottish Government’s flagship policy on child poverty reduction and is doing most of the heavy lifting in terms of lifting families and children out of poverty. So, while we warmly welcomed the increase to £25 and the extension to under sixteens earlier this year, it is important to note that plans to increase the SCP to £25 were already in place before the cost-of-living crisis began to bite. This means the payment already possesses less purchasing power, due to the impacts of inflation, even before it has landed in families’ pockets. In the End Child Poverty Coalition’s Scottish budget briefing, we insist that further investment in the SCP is needed.
Acting Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, John Swinney, seemed to justify the decision not to raise the SCP in line with inflation based on the significant increases that have been rolled out since the inception of the payment. He noted that the SCP has increased by 150% in just eight months. But this seeks to justify the decision not to uprate the SCP in line with inflation based on the progress that has been made, and fails to take account of the progress that must be made.
While deciding not to uprate the SCP in line with inflation will not in itself reduce the number of children the increased payment is set lift out of relative poverty, the impacts of inflation mean children will not feel the full effect of the payment in terms of rises in living standards. In light of the immense financial pressures families are facing, which are certain to last throughout 2023/34, children needed to see the SCP retain, in real terms, its increased value and this will need to be looked at in future budgets.
“The Scottish Child Payment’s gone up from £10, £20, to £25 a week per child’ but it still doesn’t match inflation.” (Parent in Scotland, November 2022)
The budget states clearly that the Scottish Government will continue to prioritise funding from across government portfolios to reduce child poverty, as set out in Best Start, Brighter Futures. However, while many actions set out in Best Start, Bright Futures made it into the budget announcement, there remains more work to do to understand the detail underpinning the announcement and how this budget supports movement towards meeting the 2030 targets.
With a fixed in-year budget, there is very little hope for further investment in tackling child poverty in the coming financial year. As welcome as many of the announcements are, and as heartening it is to see the Scottish Government make bold decisions on taxation in order to fund public services and create a more just society, this budget still leaves thousands of families across Scotland worried about how they are going to survive financially. That is why Save the Children will continue to work with families and partners to ensure that the Scottish Government maintains momentum in its efforts to eradicate child poverty.
