'National embarrassment': SNP ministers fail to hit child poverty target

The Scottish Government has failed to hit its interim legally-binding child poverty target, with the lack of progress branded a “national embarrassment”.

SNP ministers were required to ensure that 18 per cent or fewer children were living in poverty by 2023/24. But figures published on Thursday have confirmed 22 per cent of young people are still living below the breadline.

Child poverty has fallen in Scotland but not far enough to meet legally-binding targets | Getty Images

Scotland’s child poverty rate has reduced by 4 per cent in the space of a year and is better than the UK-wide rate of 31 per cent. The statistics are the first annual figures to take account of the Scottish Government’s flagship Scottish Child Payment.

John Swinney has made eradicating child poverty his top priority, but the Scottish Government faces more pressure to hit the 2030/31 target of less than 10 per cent after the Labour UK government’s welfare reforms are poised to drag 250,000 extra people into poverty across the UK, including 50,000 children.

Speaking at FMQs, Mr Swinney said the Chancellor’s Spring statement will make progress to meet the 2030 target more difficult as he warned the strategy was “swimming against a tide of rising poverty levels as a consequence of UK government decision-making”.

READ MORE: Scottish Government will do 'everything' to avoid replicating UK welfare cuts, finance secretary says

The statistics reveal there has been a sharp rise in the number of children living in ‘persistent’ poverty, growing up in hardship year after year, up to 23 per cent from 17 per cent between 2019 and 2023, despite an 8 per cent target for 2023/24.

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Lewis Ryder-Jones, Oxfam Scotland’s advocacy adviser, said: “While fewer children living in poverty is obviously good news, missing this key target is a national embarrassment for a country as wealthy as Scotland and the stark consequence of collective political negligence.

Lewis Ryder-Jones, advocacy advisor for Oxfam Scotland

“Poverty is a political choice, and our political leaders need to ask themselves: why are children trapped in poverty while the wealthy get ever richer? They insist child poverty is a priority, yet they continue to shield the wealthiest from paying their fair share of tax. That isn’t only unjust, it’s a failure of leadership.”

READ MORE: SNP set for benefits spending collision with Labour to rescue poverty targets

Fiona Steel, national director for Scotland at Action for Children, welcomed the “positive steps” of introducing the Scottish Child Payment and SNP ministers’ plans to mitigate the two-child benefits cap. But she warned the Labour government’s decision to cut disability benefits would “target the most vulnerable children in society and undermine attempts to reduce child poverty”.

Fiona King, senior policy and public affairs manager for Save the Children Scotland, said “not nearly enough is being done to give all children in Scotland a decent start in life”.

She said: “In contrast to what is happening across the rest of the UK, it is positive to see child poverty reducing across Scotland for the first time in many years.

“But the legally-binding interim child poverty targets have been missed. That means too many children being denied an equal opportunity to thrive. We are deeply disappointed to have not seen more progress.”

John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said that devolved policies, including the Scottish Child Payment, “are working to shift the dial for children in Scotland in the face of poverty rising to record highs across the rest of the UK”.

He added: “It is obviously disappointing that progress falls short of the interim targets, but the statistics show that when government invests to support families, then child poverty will fall.”

SNP Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville | PA

Social Justice Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s top priority and we are committed to meeting the 2030 targets unanimously agreed by the Scottish Parliament.

“Our policies are having to work harder than ever to make a difference, against a backdrop of a continuing cost of living crisis, rising energy costs and UK government decision making. However, we know these policies are working.”

She added: “Statistics published today show that, although we have not met the interim child poverty targets, the proportion of children living in relative poverty has reduced and year-on-year rates are now lower than they have been since 2014/15, while the proportion in absolute poverty has also fallen, with the annual figure the lowest in 30 years.

"While the Joseph Rowntree Foundation predict child poverty will rise in other parts of the UK by 2029, they highlight that policies such as our Scottish Child Payment, and our commitment to mitigate the two-child limit, ‘are behind Scotland bucking the trend’.”

Scottish Labour social justice spokesperson, Paul O’Kane, said: “John Swinney has said that ending child poverty is his single greatest priority, but today’s figures show his Government has failed to make the progress needed.

“Any reduction in child poverty is welcome, but it is clear that much more needs to be done if the SNP is going to get things back on track. Ending poverty requires the whole government to put its shoulder to the wheel – to fix our NHS, deliver the skills and training our young people need and build more good homes in every community. “

Despite the Labour government’s benefits polices set to pull 50,000 children across the UK into poverty, Mr O’Kane pointed to the UK government having “already acted to tackle insecure work which often contributes to poverty”, claiming his colleagues at Westminster have “put more money into the pockets of working people and families, with real wages growing at their fastest rate in over three years”.

Scottish LibDems communities spokesperson Willie Rennie said: “This is no surprise, but it is still shocking that, despite the rhetoric from the SNP, they have left thousands of children in poverty.

“They have the powers. The target was set a long time ago, but only belatedly was the action taken to tackle child poverty. The root causes of child poverty must be the primary focus from now on.”