GMPA (now Resolve Poverty) has been supporting local authorities in Greater Manchester and across the country to introduce anti-poverty strategies. What role do local anti-poverty strategies play in helping individuals and communities? What can be learned from work that is currently being done? And what makes a good strategy?
First Minister is right to prioritise childcare, but more direct cash support still needed to meet child poverty targets say campaigners and “disappointment” at lack of further detail on First Minister’s commitment to increase Scottish child payment to £30.
Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s Programme for Government statement from the First Minister, John Dickie, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland said: “The First Minister has been right to say that tackling child poverty must be a top priority and his leadership campaign pledge to increase the Scottish child payment to £30 in his first budget was especially welcome. His first Programme for Government is his opportunity to show he will deliver on that promise. With low-income families still reeling under the pressures of the cost-of-living crisis there is not a moment to lose to turn his welcome words into concrete policies.”
Tackling child poverty in Scotland is a priority for the Scottish government, and the government's policies are working to reduce child poverty. However more needs to be done to ensure Scotland meets its legally binding child poverty targets. We have set out what the Scottish government's spending priorities should be to ensure child poverty targets are met.
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.
Are poverty and income inequality separate issues determined by different factors? Can low levels of poverty co-exist with high levels of inequality? For most of the last 200 years, these key measures of social fragility have been viewed as separate conditions, with antipoverty policy focused on raising the income floor, largely ignoring what has been happening at the top. But what is the relationship between inequality and the anti-poverty agenda?
