Commenting on today’s release of the Scottish Government’s Poverty and Income Inequality Statistics, Bill Scott, Chair of the Poverty and Inequality Commission said:
“Today’s statistics make clear the scale of the task ahead for the Scottish government to meet Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets. These figures do not give strong evidence of progress and I’m concerned that the gap between where we are and where we need to be remains large.
“These new figures are from 2021/22 and the introduction of the original Scottish Child Payment (ten pounds per week) is likely to have contributed to some of the more positive signs we see in these statistics. I hope to see actions that the Scottish government has since taken to further increase the Scottish Child Payment, and extend it to eligible under sixteen-year-olds, have a bigger impact on these statistics in future years.
“These figures coupled with the cost-of-living crisis gives the Scottish government an extremely challenging outlook to meet its commitment to reduce child poverty and reach Scotland’s statutory targets.
“The Poverty and Inequality Commission want to see the Scottish government use the information in these statistics to review its activity, focus on priority groups, and think seriously about whether its current and planned activity will be enough to meet the targets.”