CHALLENGE POVERTY WEEK 2026
We are publishing this report at a critical crossroads in Scotland’s journey to a possible future, one free from poverty.
In this year’s election campaign and programme for government, we have consistently heard the First Minister describe eradicating poverty as his defining mission (Scottish Government, 2026a). This commitment is welcome, but there is an increasing disconnect between the Scottish Government’s rhetoric and the reality of life for families in poverty across Scotland.
New data for 2022–25 shows that:
- 17% of people in Scotland were in poverty, 11% in deep poverty and 7% in very deep poverty. Around 2 in 5 people in poverty in Scotland are in very deep poverty
- relative child poverty sits at 21%
- over 9 in 10 children in poverty are in one or more of the Scottish Government’s priority families.
Despite some progress, the legal target to reduce relative child poverty to 10% by 2030/31 is set to be missed by a wide margin. Interim targets have been missed, and the Scottish Government’s current plans will not deliver the scale of change needed to shift the dial.
We want a better start for all children in Scotland, and there is clear evidence of overwhelming public support for more, and more effective, action on child poverty.
The Scottish Government’s plan to review Scotland’s landmark statutory child poverty targets risks delaying action and lowering ambitions. New targets need to be genuinely stretching, grounded in income as a central measure of poverty, and have teeth to hold the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament to account for meeting them.
In parallel, the Scottish Government needs a new, much bolder and properly funded plan to reduce poverty in Scotland. Only 1 in 4 people (26%) somewhat or strongly agreed that the Scottish Government is doing enough to tackle child poverty in Scotland (Birt, 2026a).
This year, as well as assessing the national picture, we have focused on the vital role of local government in reducing poverty, backed by new public attitudes data and engagement with people with lived experience.
In findings that must shape live discussions about the future of local governance and public service reform in Scotland, we have heard that:
- people think councils are too underfunded to provide the services needed in their area
- there is significant public disaffection with councils, regardless of people’s backgrounds and across Scotland’s different communities
- councils are not doing enough to tackle poverty, with people on low incomes and living in more deprived areas reporting worse experiences of services and higher levels of disaffection.
To fix this, the Scottish Government and local government will need to work more effectively – in their own right and in collaboration.
Every council needs to ask itself, just as the Scottish Government should do, whether they have genuinely prioritised child poverty reduction and if their services are best where they are needed the most.
Fundamentally, these should be the core questions of public service reform; otherwise it simply becomes a numbers game of reductions in the number of councils and/or budgets. It is also clear that public service reform needs to go hand in hand with a fundamental rethink of local government funding to rewire our services and tax system to radically reduce poverty.
It is also vital that national and local government’s bandwidth across this parliament is not consumed by bureaucratic strife; families in poverty need to see rapid progress in the immediate term.
We want the Scottish Government, as part of its renewed drive to reform local government in Scotland, to:
- provide local government with a more stable platform for anti-poverty work — avoiding single-year funding settlements and allowing councils greater freedom to adapt to their communities’ needs
- take steps to fundamentally reform local government finance in Scotland
- ground public service reform in 2 key questions: would the changes reduce child poverty and will they make services best where they are needed the most?
We want all councils to:
- prioritise preventing poverty in their communities, and make full use of their levers including economic development, childcare, employability, transport, housing and schools
- provide better-quality and more joined-up local services to support families in or at risk of poverty, with genuine partnership with the third sector, co-location of services, a ‘no wrong door’ approach and better use of data
- significantly improve day-to-day communication with the public, underpinned by deeper and more meaningful work to involve people with lived experience of poverty in local decision-making.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation: Poverty in Scotland 2026 report
Executive Summary
