The Scottish Government’s vision for ending child poverty in Scotland took a step forward yesterday with the launch of The Child Poverty Bill consultation. The Bill, to be introduced next year, will build on the Scottish Government’s existing work and will form part of the overall approach to tackling poverty and inequality. Continue reading A step on the road to ending child poverty in Scotland
Scotland is set to bring forward legislation to tackle the deep-rooted causes of child poverty for the first time in its history, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced today. Continue reading Legislation to eradicate child poverty is on the way
Addressing Inequality in Employment forum meeting
29th June 1.30-4pm at Spartans Community Football Academy
Employment is a big issue for many people in North Edinburgh. Research in the recent Framework for Racial Equality highlighted that BME people are underrepresented in many areas. How should organisations address this?
We will have a guest speaker from the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights giving an overview of the current inequalities and how these could be addressed. We will also hear from organisations, including Port of Leith Housing, that have reviewed their recruitment practices to try to make them more accessible or to reach out to specific groups.
Local BME residents who have been supported by Community Renewal to find work or start businesses will share their experiences. There will be a chance to exchange ideas and discuss ways of moving forward both collectively and as individual organisations or residents. Lunch and crèche included. Please RSVP.
Hannah Kitchen
Development Worker, Living in Harmony,
Pilton Community Health Project
0131 551 1671
Dunedin Canmore and Port of Leith Housing Associations among projects t0 receive People and Communities Fund awards
Projects which promote healthy eating, IT skills and household budgeting will receive more than £690,000 funding to tackle poverty and inequalities in Edinburgh, it was announced this morning.
Fourteen projects from across the city have secured a share of the Scottish Government’s People and Communities Fund (PCF) to change disadvantaged communities by providing advice, training or voluntary opportunities.
These include Port of Leith Housing Association’s Canny Budgeting which will receive £35,000 to offer advice to residents on tackling fuel poverty, more than £10,000 for Dunedin Canmore Housing Ltd’s Digital Skills for All for IT workshops and £23,000 for Broomhouse Health Strategy’s healthy eating classes.
The 20 More project, will receive £37,000 through PCF to empower local people and help households save £20 a week, through training opportunities which will allow them to gain skills and qualifications in community development, and benefits and energy advice, at the project’s community shop.
Speaking on a visit to the 20 More Community Shop and Serenity Café which is also operated by Comas, Community Empowerment Minister Marco Biagi said: “Every community in Scotland has different challenges and aspirations and there is no one-size fits all approach to tackling poverty.
“That’s why our People and Communities Fund is giving communities in Edinburgh the power and confidence to shape their own futures.
“With household budgets under pressure, it’s great to see a project like 20 More looking for ways to save 600 of the area’s most vulnerable families at least £20 a week and helping to ease some of the stress of paying their bills.”
Ruth Campbell, Chief Executive of Comas said: “We are so pleased that the Scottish Government is focusing on empowering communities, as sustainable change must be community-led and start from the grassroots. This grant enables us to put local people in the driving seat and builds their capacity for community-led action.
“Training local people in benefits advice and energy saving will directly impact on wellbeing in this community. It will also help some residents gain employment in these growing sectors, so the grant will have a strong ripple effect.”
See below for the full list of projects to receive PCF awards:
http://www.gov.scot/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/community/pcf/awards
Another £5.6 million for People and Communities Fund
A fund which gives community groups the power to tackle poverty and inequalities in their areas has been given a £5.6 million funding boost.
Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil confirmed community-led regeneration will be given extra support through the People and Communities Fund (PCF), on a visit to the Broomhouse Health Strategy Group this morning.
The People and Communities Fund will be increased from £9.4 million to £15 million as it benefits from support through the dedicated £10 million funding for Empowering Communities announced by the First Minister last November.
This investment builds on the Government’s commitment to giving people the power to take charge and make changes in their own communities.
The additional funding will be allocated to a variety of projects, including community groups who are promoting change in disadvantaged communities through training, employment, healthy eating and volunteering opportunities.
Mr Neil made the announcement ahead of this afternoon’s Stage 1 Debate for the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill. He said:
“We know every community in Scotland has different needs, and that we all have our own ideas about how we can make our areas better.
“This Government recognises that by giving communities the power and confidence to shape their own futures, we can tackle poverty and address inequalities more effectively.
“Through the People and Communities Fund we will provide money direct to community groups to help them tackle local issues on their own terms.
“This new money will support the aims of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill, which will give people a stronger voice in the decisions that matter to them and will help communities who wish to take over public land and buildings.”
Since PCF launched in 2012, 156 projects have received funding worth £18.3 million those projects include the Broomhouse Health Strategy Group which was awarded almost £30,000 to run cookery and exercise sessions which encourage local people to make healthy lifestyle choices.
The sessions have helped increase self-esteem and confidence among local people, many of whom had never cooked a meal from scratch before, and it has supported their skills development with some developing the confidence to move into local volunteering roles.
Lucy Aitchison, from the Broomhouse Health Strategy Group said: “It’s been great to develop our health and wellbeing services, and you can see them making a real difference to people’s lives.
“To give people the skills to be able to look after themselves and their family more healthily is really significant. We’re so pleased to have the support to be able to address these local needs.”
For more information about the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill visit:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/People/engage
Details on The People and Communities Fund can be viewed at:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/regeneration/community/pcf
Forget 7:84 – fifty years on it’s 1:99
Back in 1966, The Economist magazine published a (then) startling statistic that 7% of the UK’s population owned 84% of the country’s wealth. Almost fifty years on, and …
The combined wealth of the richest 1 per cent will overtake that of the other 99 per cent of people next year unless the current trend of rising inequality is checked, Oxfam warned today ahead of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos.
The international agency, whose executive director Winnie Byanyima will co-chair the Davos event, warned that the explosion in inequality is holding back the fight against global poverty at a time when 1 in 9 people do not have enough to eat and more than a billion people still live on less than $1.25-a-day.
Byanyima will use her position at Davos to call for urgent action to stem this rising tide of inequality, starting with a crackdown on tax dodging by corporations, and to push for progress towards a global deal on climate change.
Wealth: Having it all and wanting more, a research paper published today by Oxfam, shows that the richest 1 per cent have seen their share of global wealth increase from 44 per cent in 2009 to 48 per cent in 2014 and at this rate will be more than 50 per cent in 2016. Members of this global elite had an average wealth of $2.7m per adult in 2014.
Of the remaining 52 per cent of global wealth, almost all (46 per cent) is owned by the rest of the richest fifth of the world’s population. The other 80 per cent share just 5.5 per cent and had an average wealth of $3,851 per adult – that’s 1/700th of the average wealth of the 1 per cent.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, said: “Do we really want to live in a world where the one per cent own more than the rest of us combined? The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering and despite the issues shooting up the global agenda, the gap between the richest and the rest is widening fast.
“In the past 12 months we have seen world leaders from President Obama to Christine Lagarde talk more about tackling extreme inequality but we are still waiting for many of them to walk the walk. It is time our leaders took on the powerful vested interests that stand in the way of a fairer and more prosperous world.
“Business as usual for the elite isn’t a cost free option – failure to tackle inequality will set the fight against poverty back decades. The poor are hurt twice by rising inequality – they get a smaller share of the economic pie and because extreme inequality hurts growth, there is less pie to be shared around.”
Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, Chief Executive Officer of EL Rothschild and chairman of the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism, who is speaking at a joint Oxfam-University of Oxford event on inequality today, called on business leaders meeting in Davos to play their part in tackling extreme inequality.
She said: “Oxfam’s report is just the latest evidence that inequality has reached shocking extremes, and continues to grow. It is time for the global leaders of modern capitalism, in addition to our politicians, to work to change the system to make it more inclusive, more equitable and more sustainable.
“Extreme inequality isn’t just a moral wrong. It undermines economic growth and it threatens the private sector’s bottom line. All those gathering at Davos who want a stable and prosperous world should make tackling inequality a top priority.”Oxfam made headlines at Davos last year with the revelation that the 85 richest people on the planet have the same wealth as the poorest 50 per cent (3.5 billion people). That figure is now 80 – a dramatic fall from 388 people in 2010. The wealth of the richest 80 doubled in cash terms between 2009-14.
The international agency is calling on governments to adopt a seven point plan to tackle inequality:
Today’s research paper, which follows the October launch of Oxfam’s global Even It Up campaign, shines a light on the way extreme wealth is passed down the generations and how elite groups mobilise their vast resources to ensure global rules are favourable towards their interests. More than a third of the 1645 billionaires listed by Forbes inherited some or all of their riches.
Twenty per cent of billionaires have interests in the financial and insurance sectors, a group which saw their cash wealth increase by 11 per cent in the 12 months to March 2014. These sectors spent $550m lobbying policy makers in Washington and Brussels during 2013. During the 2012 US election cycle alone, the financial sector provided $571m in campaign contributions.
Billionaires listed as having interests in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors saw their collective net worth increase by 47 per cent. During 2013, they spent more than $500m lobbying policy makers in Washington and Brussels.
Oxfam is concerned that the lobbying power of these sectors is a major barrier in the way of reforming the global tax system and of ensuring intellectual property rules do not lead to the world’s poorest being denied life saving medicines.
There is increasing evidence from the International Monetary Fund, among others, that extreme inequality is not just bad news for those at the bottom but also damages economic growth.
‘We can and must do better for our children’
Edinburgh is one of the UK’s most prosperous cities – but more than ONE IN FIVE children in the capital (21%) are living in poverty, according to the latest research.
Report_on_child_poverty_map_2014
The Campaign to End Child Poverty (CECP) has today published new figures that provide a child poverty map of the whole of the UK. The figures are broken down by parliamentary constituency, local authority and ward (see report, above). The research was conducted for CECP by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University.
The figures reveal the wide disparity in poverty rates across the UK, between regions and striking variations even within regions. London scores badly – containing ten of the top 20 constituencies with the highest child poverty rates in the UK and 14 of the 20 highest-rate local authorities. However there is variation even within regions: in London, Bethnal Green and Bow has a child poverty rate of 49% compared to just 15% in Richmond upon Thames.
In Scotland, Glasgow has the highest rate of child poverty, with the problem affecting a third of all youngsters in the city. Across Scotland some 220,000 children are living in poverty — a fifth of all youngsters — and campaigners are convinced this total will rise.
CECP is demanding urgent political action at all levels and urges the Westminster government to rethink its tax and benefit policies, claiming these could leave as many as 100,000 more children in poverty by 2020.
They also want local and national housing policies to focus on keeping rent bills down in both the social housing sector and the private rental market.
Chair of End Child Poverty David Holmes said: “These figures reveal just how widely and deeply child poverty reaches into our communities, even those areas generally regarded as well off. Far too many children whose parents are struggling to make a living are suffering as a result and missing out on the essentials of a decent childhood that all young people should be entitled to. We can and must do better for our children.
“Poverty ruins childhoods and reduces life chances. Failing to invest properly in children is a false economy: already child poverty costs the country £29bn each year and in the long run taxpayers will foot an even higher bill for correcting the damage.
“We are calling on politicians of all parties to urgently set out a clear roadmap towards ending child poverty which includes the additional actions needed and the measures by which progress will be tracked.”
CECP Scotland spokesman Neil Mathers said: “It’s important we look behind these figures at what is driving this level of poverty in our country.
“Politicians of all parties, at Westminster and Holyrood, need to act to tackle the root causes of poverty, including low pay and soaring housing and childcare costs. There is nothing inevitable about this poverty. We must build on the good work that is happening in Scotland to support families.”
He went on: “We know there is ambition in Scotland to do more. We now need to act so that all our children have a fair start. We can and must do better for our children.”
POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN EDINBURGH
The city’s strategic community planning body The Edinburgh Partnership has created poverty and inequality profiles of each of the city’s twelve Neighbourhood Partnerships.
To see the profiles for Forth and Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnerships click on the link(s) below:
Whatever the result of Thursday’s vote, Scotland will still have deep social problems to address and campaigners are urging both sides in the referendum debate to unite to tackle poverty.
As the referendum campaign enters its final few days the Poverty Alliance has called on all sides to maintain the passion and commitment that has been shown through the campaign and to turn it to finding lasting solutions to poverty and inequality in Scotland.
Throughout the referendum campaign issues of poverty and social justice have been central to the debates. Whether on issues of food poverty, low pay, unemployment or child poverty, all sides have stated that they are committed to making real change to create a more socially just Scotland.
On 19 September politicians and activists from both campaigns must begin to find ways of working together to bring people together and tackle poverty.
The referendum has shown that not only is there an appetite for social change, but that more people than ever want their voices to be heard. With more than 100,000 people registering to vote in the last month alone, we need to find ways to ensure that the democratic impulse that many people have experienced for the first time is sustained and turned into genuine grassroots democratic politics, regardless of the outcome of the referendum.
Whatever changes over the coming months and years we are calling now for all political leaders to commit to ensuring that the voices of those who are living in poverty, those who have been the subject of so much debate during the campaign, are genuinely involved and actively shape the new Scotland that will emerge.
A little over three weeks after the referendum the Poverty Alliance will be coordinating Challenge Poverty Week, which will take place from the 12 -18 October.
This will be a week of debates and action designed to show what has been done to tackle poverty. It will be one of the first opportunities after the referendum for campaigners to come together to show what they intend to do to address poverty now. We hope campaigners from both sides will get involved in Challenge Poverty Week and show the same enthusiasm for tackling poverty as they have for our constitutional future.
Peter Kelly, Director of the Poverty Alliance, said: “This is an exciting time in Scottish politics and many people will consider the referendum to be the most important election of their lives.
“It is fantastic to see so many people registered to vote and I hope turnout will be high on the day.
“Poverty and social justice has been at the centre of the debate on independence and it been heartening to see so much debate about the type of Scotland we want to live.
“In 2012-13, 16 per cent of people in Scotland were living in poverty, more than 800,000. People on both sides of the debate have agreed that this is unacceptable and that we need to re-think our approach to tackling the problem, whether it is low benefit levels, unemployment or low pay. What the campaigns disagree on is how we best achieve this.
“It has become increasingly clear that the results will be close and it is important that people on both sides of the debate believe their voices will be heard regardless of the result. In particular we must ensure that the voices of those who are rarely heard, those people living in poverty, are taken seriously after the result of the referendum is known.
“Both campaigns must be prepared to set aside their differences and work together for a better Scotland, one where the blight of poverty is effectively tackled.”
Green Yes, the Scottish Green Party’s campaign for a Yes vote in the independence referendum, has published a paper showing how a Scottish Parliament with responsibility for welfare could implement a Citizen’s Income to reduce inequality.
The Greens have worked with Dr David Comerford, research fellow in economics at the University of Stirling, as well the Citizen’s Income Trust, to model the impact of the policy on household incomes.
One of the aims of the policy is to reduce the incredible complexity of the tax and benefits system, which penalises those with unreliable work or insecure housing. A longstanding Scottish Green policy, the Citizen’s Income would sweep away almost all benefits and the state pension and replace them with simple, regular payment to every child, adult and pensioner.
The paper is the latest in a series produced by the Green Yes campaign showing how independence opens up possibilities for progressive change in Scotland. Other papers have covered jobs, wages and the economy, local democracy, banking reform and digital rights.
CITIZEN’S INCOME – 70% CENT OF HOUSEHOLDS BETTER OFF
Under the model detailed in the paper:
– Weekly payments are proposed of £50 to children, £100 to adults and £150 to pensioners.
– 70 per cent of households would be better off than presently.
– Those in the lowest income bracket would benefit the most.
– Measures of inequality would be brought in line with some of the most equal countries in the world.
– Income earned in addition to the citizen’s income would continue to be taxed progressively.
Patrick Harvie MSP, Co-convener of the Scottish Greens, said: “This is a policy to recapture and renew the idea of a welfare state that looks after everyone. Scotland is a wealthy country, and we should be able to choose a different approach to austerity and the harmful attitude which pits people on poverty pay against those on benefits.
“A Citizen’s Income would ensure everyone’s basic needs are met. It’s a simple idea that could transform this country by reducing inequality and allowing each of us to make our own decisions about working, caring, learning and creating, without ending up on the breadline.”
Alison Johnstone, Green MSP for Lothian and member of Holyrood’s Economy Committee, said: “The referendum debate allows us to imagine what sort of Scottish welfare system we could design after a Yes vote, and this is the Greens’ vision for a simpler and fairer approach. A Citizen’s Income would be an especially positive policy for women as it would make it easier to combine working and caring roles.”
Digital participation to tackle inequality and boost online access
A new strategy outlining how digital technology can be used to tackle inequalities and benefit communities across the country was launched by Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop at PEP in West Pilton Park yesterday afternoon.
The National Digital Participation Framework for Local Action maps out how helping people to get online and become confident users of the internet can open up new possibilities in healthcare, education and economic development. It also details how anyone can access support and training on digital skills at home, at work and in communities.
The strategy was launched as Ms Hyslop visited Pilton Equalities Project (PEP), where she met staff, volunteers and members of the local community. PEP provides a range of services for older and other vulnerable adults in North Edinburgh, including computer classes, which encourage independence and reduce isolation.
Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop said: “Digital technology is transforming our society and changing the way we live – how we buy goods and services, how we build and maintain friendships and how we communicate with people and organisations in our local communities and across the world.
“The Scottish Government is determined Scotland is seen as a world-leading digital nation by 2020. We want everyone to be able to reap the social, cultural and economic benefits the internet can bring.
“While good progress is being made with the delivery of digital infrastructure, more needs to be done to enable people to become active digital citizens and share in the benefits the internet can bring.
“The Pilton Equalities Partnership is an excellent example of an organisation that supports people who are digitally excluded. The Scottish Government, through our Digital Participation Strategy, intends to support similar organisations who wish to make a positive contribution to increasing digital participation.”
Jean Gallagher, who attends computer classes at PEP, said: “I was delighted when a friend advised me that there was a place nearby that had a computer class for the elderly and, although I was a bit apprehensive, I decided that If I was to understand about the technology of today’s world I had to take the plunge.
“As a complete novice seven years ago, not even knowing how to turn on a computer, I can now do most of my shopping online, I do the family banking online, keep in touch with friends and family abroad via Skype and those nearer hand via social networking.
“I feel there is no way that at 81 years old would I be able to keep up with the modern way of living if it had not been for the staff at the PEP centre. I owe my new way of life to them and will be eternally grateful.”
Chris Yiu, Director of Digital Participation at SCVO said: “Everybody should have an opportunity to benefit from the internet, regardless of background or circumstances. Three in ten people in Scotland still lack the basic skills needed to get things done online. If we are serious about being a world-leading digital nation then the time has come to close this divide.
“SCVO welcomes the publication of the Digital Participation Strategy, and is delighted to play a leading role in this important agenda. By working across the public, private and third sectors to coordinate and scale up digital participation projects, together we will make a real and lasting difference to people and communities across Scotland.”
PEP manager Helen Tait said: “PEP provide the facilities, training and on-going digital support to enable older and less able people within our community to take advantage of the social and economic benefits of digital technology. Much of the focus is directed to understanding and using general web-browsing, email, social media, online shopping, and public services. It also creates the opportunity to increase socialisation through peer support. We also ensure that users are aware of, and know how to handle, the security issues that associate with online services.”
