"UK Budget must invest in children to reduce child poverty" demand campaigners
- Charity’s briefing to MPs warns of ‘catastrophic’ results if UK government policies continue to ignore children in poverty
- Budget must scrap the two-child limit, remove the benefit cap and increase child benefit by £20 a week
Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s (6th March) UK budget statement , John Dickie, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said;
“It is vital that government at every level acts to prevent and end child poverty, yet current UK government policies are actually driving children into poverty. The Chancellor needs to use this week’s Budget to scrap poverty producing policies like the two-child limit and benefit cap, and to begin to restore the value of family benefits – starting with a £20 a week increase to child benefit. Children in Scotland and across the UK deserve nothing less.”
In a briefing to all Westminster MPs the Child Poverty Action Group highlights that more than four million children are now living in poverty in the UK, with 250 000 of them living in Scotland. The charity says it is not tenable for the UK government to continue to ignore these children because their health, their education, their living standards and their life chances will all suffer. If it does, the briefing says, the results will be ‘catastrophic’. The briefing suggests the most cost-effective way to reduce child poverty is to scrap the two-child limit. In April 2024 almost 500,000 families (1.8 million children) across the UK will be affected by the policy, the vast majority of whom live in poverty. Scrapping the two-child limit would lift 300,000 children out of poverty, around 15 000 of them in Scotland alone.
Child benefit boost needed
Increasing child benefit would further reduce child poverty the campaigners say, while also supporting the income security of struggling low- and middle-income families who sit just above the threshold for means-tested benefits. Even with the uprating of child benefit in April, real-terms cuts since 2010 mean child benefit needs to rise by 25 per cent to restore its value. CPAG estimate increasing child benefit by £20 a week would pull 500,000 children out of poverty across the UK, at a cost of £10 billion.
Mr Dickie continued
“If the Scottish government can manage to drive down child poverty by introducing the £25 a week Scottish child payment there is absolutely no reason UK government cannot provide, at the very least, equivalent investment in UK family benefits. We need governments at every level to work together if we are to end the scandal of child poverty in a rich country.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
CPAG’s pre-Budget briefing for MPs can be found here https://cpag.org.uk/news/pre-budget-briefing-mps
For more details or interviews on the implications of the Chancellor’s budget for families in Scotland contact John Dickie, Director of CPAG in Scotland, on 07795 340 618