In the period 2020 to 2023, 1 in 4 children in Scotland were growing up in poverty. Poverty strips away the opportunities for children and young people to learn, grow and develop fully, and have happy and thriving childhoods.
As well as harming children and families, poverty harms Scotland’s economy to the cost of at least £2.4 billion per year. This isn’t acceptable, and change is possible.
We welcome progress on action to drive down child poverty, especially through investment in the Scottish Child Payment, a powerful intervention for putting money directly in the pockets of low income families.
However, while tackling child poverty is the Scottish Government’s and the First Minister’s stated “first priority”, this priority must be better reflected in budget decisions.
That is why the End Child Poverty Coalition is calling on the Scottish Government to ensure the 2025-26 Scottish Budget allocates the necessary additional resources to address the root causes of child poverty.
The 2025-26 budget should resource action across social security, employment, housing and whole-family support.
It is vital that the Scottish Government raises the resources in this budget – including through the ambitious and bold use of devolved taxation and Barnett consequentials flowing from the recent UK Budget – to fund the action needed to deliver on the First Minister’s number one priority of ending child poverty.
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