17 June 2025
The Commission has published its Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2024-25. This report gives the Commission’s views on progress towards meeting Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets. It provides the Commission’s assessment of whether progress is sufficient, and what more the Commission believes is needed.
Download Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2024-25 Executive Summary (pdf, 2.5 MB)
Download the full Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2024-25 (pdf, 2.4 MB)
The report concludes that, despite the success of the Scottish Child Payment, all four interim child poverty targets for 2023/24 have been missed, and the Scottish Government is not at all likely to meet the final 2030 targets.
The Commission notes that there is clearly no lack of belief that child poverty is deeply damaging for children and society in Scotland, and that it needs to be eradicated. The Scottish Government must raise its ambitions and make revenue raising and funding decisions that bridge the gap between where we are now and where need to be in 2030/31.