Figures published last week reiterated the shameful rise in child poverty across the UK, to nearly one in three children. In Scotland it’s less than one in four, but still far too high, and there’s cross-party support for targets to reduce it to one in ten by the end of this decade. But a new study funded by abrdn Financial Fairness Trust shows that on present policies it’s set to end the decade at close to twice that level.
It was a Scot, Gordon Brown, who did far more than any other Chancellor to lift children across the UK out of poverty – getting close to his ambition of halving child poverty by 2010. He did this in particular by introducing and increasing the generosity of tax credits, which ensured that families got help from the state not just when out of work but also when working on modest pay. Next week, the last tax credits will be paid out, completing a long transition to Universal Credit. This continues helping families in and out of work, but entitlements have been persistently restricted and cut.
The present UK government also aims to reduce child poverty by the late 2020s, but so far not by a specified amount. Its promised strategy for doing so will face an uphill battle, given the swinging cuts to disability benefits, some of which will fall on families. Small announced increases in the basic level of Universal Credit will only very partially offset these losses.
Scotland will also feel these effects, but Holyrood is tugging in the opposite direction by prioritising anti-child poverty measures in ways not seen since Brown’s heyday. The Scottish Child Payment (SCP) of nearly £1,400 a year per child paid to Universal Credit Families, together with the promise to effectively reverse the two-child benefit limit for Scottish families, should help to lift about 60,000 children out of poverty by 2030: some progress, although 100,000 less than implied by the target.
Delivering on the Scottish strategy will be made harder by reduced flows from Westminster. In addition, the arrival of a new UK administration has not so far created greater collaboration with Holyrood, with bickering continuing over how to make two overlapping social security systems work together, rather than against each other.
This needs to stop: politicians and civil servants from the two administrations should work together to help Scottish families. A good example is improving the way that Universal Credit and the SCP interact. Today, a working family whose earnings are just low enough to qualify for Universal Credit gets the full SCP; but by earning a pound a week more, bringing the Universal Credit entitlement to zero, they would lose the entire SCP, worth over £53 a week if they have two children. This kind of “cliff edge”, reducing total income because of a rise in earnings, is the kind of thing social security systems need to avoid.
Far better to integrate Universal Credit and SCP for Scottish claimants, into a single benefit. That way, there would be a gradual reduction in the entire payment as earnings rise, and not a sudden disappearance of the SCP element when the Universal Credit entitlement reaches zero. A grown-up relationship between Holyrood and Westminster could surely achieve this.
Donald Hirsch is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University and Policy Adviser to abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.
This article first appeared in the Scotsman on Sunday.
It was a Scot, Gordon Brown, who did far more than any other Chancellor to lift children across the UK out of poverty – getting close to his ambition of halving child poverty by 2010. He did this in particular by introducing and increasing the generosity of tax credits, which ensured that families got help from the state not just when out of work but also when working on modest pay. Next week, the last tax credits will be paid out, completing a long transition to Universal Credit. This continues helping families in and out of work, but entitlements have been persistently restricted and cut.
The present UK government also aims to reduce child poverty by the late 2020s, but so far not by a specified amount. Its promised strategy for doing so will face an uphill battle, given the swinging cuts to disability benefits, some of which will fall on families. Small announced increases in the basic level of Universal Credit will only very partially offset these losses.
Scotland will also feel these effects, but Holyrood is tugging in the opposite direction by prioritising anti-child poverty measures in ways not seen since Brown’s heyday. The Scottish Child Payment (SCP) of nearly £1,400 a year per child paid to Universal Credit Families, together with the promise to effectively reverse the two-child benefit limit for Scottish families, should help to lift about 60,000 children out of poverty by 2030: some progress, although 100,000 less than implied by the target.
Delivering on the Scottish strategy will be made harder by reduced flows from Westminster. In addition, the arrival of a new UK administration has not so far created greater collaboration with Holyrood, with bickering continuing over how to make two overlapping social security systems work together, rather than against each other.
This needs to stop: politicians and civil servants from the two administrations should work together to help Scottish families. A good example is improving the way that Universal Credit and the SCP interact. Today, a working family whose earnings are just low enough to qualify for Universal Credit gets the full SCP; but by earning a pound a week more, bringing the Universal Credit entitlement to zero, they would lose the entire SCP, worth over £53 a week if they have two children. This kind of “cliff edge”, reducing total income because of a rise in earnings, is the kind of thing social security systems need to avoid.
Far better to integrate Universal Credit and SCP for Scottish claimants, into a single benefit. That way, there would be a gradual reduction in the entire payment as earnings rise, and not a sudden disappearance of the SCP element when the Universal Credit entitlement reaches zero. A grown-up relationship between Holyrood and Westminster could surely achieve this.
Donald Hirsch is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University and Policy Adviser to abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.
This article first appeared in the Scotsman on Sunday.