Over 70 charities, unions, faith groups, health professionals and social policy experts have joined forces today to call on the SNP leadership contenders to keep child poverty a top government priority if they become First Minister.
This is an important moment for the government to demonstrate how it will support families on a low income. Investing in social security protects those who need it most. This investment is highly cost-effective – reducing child poverty immediately and leading to improved education, employment and health outcomes, including life expectancy.
Just over a third (34%) of people on universal credit who are subject to the benefit cap – which the Government claims incentivises work – are assessed by the DWP as not required to look for a job because they are caring for very young children, new FOI data for Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows. A further 18% are already in work but don’t earn enough to reach the threshold for the cap to be lifted.
Who is experiencing fuel poverty? What is the relationship between fuel poverty and income? And what is the impact of the mitigations put in place to support people with rising energy costs?
Data we obtained via a freedom of information request reveals that a third (34 per cent) of people subject to the benefit cap, which the government claims is a work incentive, are not expected to seek employment because their circumstances prevent them from working. Rather than being a work incentive, it is pushing children deeper into poverty.
Several government ministers have churned out a line about work being the best route out of poverty, but does it hold any truth? The evidence submitted to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty for its report suggests that this is far from the case.
A family’s ability to get universal credit is often based not on their actual circumstances, but on a fictional version of their circumstances. Welfare rights worker Carri Swann explains.
New DWP figures out today show 107,000 families are facing escalating costs as winter bites with their benefits capped. 56,000 have kids aged under five. And more than 32,000 of these capped families (over 110,000 children) are also subject to the two-child limit policy.
A report commissioned by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland from the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University has found a widening gap between the cost of raising a child in Scotland and actual family incomes, despite the significant impact of Scottish government policies and lower childcare costs.