'Stealth social security cuts bring neither stability nor security to struggling families and will push child poverty even higher. Growth and better living standards are not achieved by taking money from families with the least. Government must invest in social security support - not cut it - for the most vulnerable, or risk being remembered as the Labour administration under whose watch child poverty continued to rise.'
The package of reforms set out yesterday will result in a net reduction in social security expenditure of £5 billion by 2029/30. This is the biggest cut to disability benefits in a generation, and will push children and families into poverty, and reduce living standards for many.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, Jenny Gilruth, visited Boghall Primary School in West Lothian to meet members of the Cost of the School Day Voice network who presented their thoughts, and the views of more than five thousand other young people in Scotland about poverty and school costs.
The Bill includes practical and tangible policy reforms which will reduce the cost of the school day for all families but make the biggest difference to the 4.3 million children that are currently growing up in poverty.
Reported cuts to disability payments risk undermining wider government efforts to reduce child poverty, new analysis by Child Poverty Action Group shows.
Child Poverty Action Group is warning that the government’s child poverty strategy will most likely fail to reduce child poverty unless it scraps the two-child limit and has binding targets.