Give Me Five campaign update
All those involved in the campaign have, since 2017, worked to make the case on the need to use Scotland’s new social security powers to invest in families on low incomes. The Scottish Government have now announced its plans for a new Scottish Child Payment and, while the payment will not be a universal one, it’s clear that the campaign has succeeded in helping to secure the commitment to the income supplement and in ensuring the approach taken is a truly ambitious one.
We, along with many others, have also continually called for the payment to be delivered before 2022, and we are delighted these calls have been listened to and that many families will receive the payment in 2021. There is still much work to be done to unlock children in Scotland from poverty – and to restore the value of social security support for families – but the announcement was a welcome one that we are proud to have played our part in securing.
Next steps
As a campaign, we believe that there is still much more to do to make the case for child benefit and for ensuring social security reduces and prevents poverty. As such, the campaign will now focus on making the case to UK government that child benefit must be restored. In the coming weeks and months, we hope to bring more UK-wide organisations in to the campaign.
FAQS
Read our FAQs about topping up child benefit by £5.
Read our updated modelling which sets out the impacts of topping-up child benefit using 2015-16 Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data. It also looks at the impacts of increasing child tax credits and sets out the challenges with this approach.
We have also sent several briefing notes to MSPs highlighting the campaign to top-up child benefit. Here are a selection:
Who we are
The Give Me Five campaign is a coalition of third sector, civic society and faith groups, including:
Get in touch: For more information about the Give Me Five campaign, please contact: Jen Gracie, Policy and Parliamentary Officer, CPAG in Scotland on [email protected]
