‘shocked to the extreme to hear that Scotland’s homeless charities and other key providers are closing their doors at this time’
In response to the closure of frontline services and businesses for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II yesterday, Homeless Project Scotland opened an emergency Soup Kitchen which served warm food and other provisions from 8pm on Argyle Street under the ‘heilanman’s umbrella’.
This provision was in addition to the charity’s 24/7 free helpline for those at risk of homelessness or are homeless.
Raja Rani in Bearsden and Tantrum Donuts were among the local businesses to support the project’s initiative.
Speaking on the eve of the state funeral, a spokesperson for Homeless Project Scotland said: “We appreciate that tomorrow will be an emotional day for our country, however we also must recognise that tomorrow will bring challenges for those who are vulnerable and homeless in being able to source and access warm and nutritious food, in addition to support given tomorrow’s closures of food banks and other homeless charities closing their doors at this time.
“It is disappointing and we are shocked to the extreme to hear that throughout Scotland homeless charities and other key providers are closing their doors at this time. It must be recognised however that Homelessness does not stop tomorrow, and as such we must uphold our principles at this difficult time and ensure that nobody goes to bed with an empty stomach .
“This is particularly going to be felt in Glasgow especially given that those who are homeless and in the city’s hotels used for accommodating the homeless will only be able to provide breakfast, consisting of a cereal bar, due to the removal of evening meals from all hotel based accommodation since May this year.
“This service will not affectour normal Soup kitchen operations on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.“
A total of £84 million has been paid to families since it was introduced less than 18 months ago.
The payment of £20 per week, unique to Scotland in the UK, began in February 2021 as a direct measure to tackle child poverty. It provides regular, additional financial support to parents and carers to help with the costs of caring for a child.
As of 30 June 2022, it is estimated that 104,000 children were actively in receipt of Scottish Child Payment and 1.4 million payments have now been made.
By the end of this year the payment will increase to £25 per week and extend to include all eligible children under the age of 16 when it is expected that over 400,000 children will potentially be eligible.
Responding to the latest official statistics on Scottish Child Payment published today Deputy First Minister John Swinney said: “We are taking a number of urgent actions to address the current cost crisis.
“This includes efforts to maximise financial support to those most in need so that they get all the money they are entitled to. The ongoing work to extend eligibility for and increase the value of the Scottish Child Payment is a vital part of these efforts.
“We created our game changing Scottish Child Payment to provide direct financial support to tackle child poverty. Every penny of support is absolutely vital at the moment, which is why we are using our devolved powers and resources to make a difference for as many households as we can.
“We doubled the payment to £20 in April and will increase it to £25 when we extend it to under 16s by the end of the year – a 150% rise in this important benefit which is one of five family benefits we are now delivering.
“The Scottish Government want to support families during these difficult times.”
Scottish Child Payment is part of a wider package of five family payments including: Best Start Grant Best Start Grant Pregnancy and Baby Payment, Best Start Grant Early Learning Payment, Best Start Grant School Age Payment and Best Start Foods
Is sustainability your bag? Sign up to Second Hand September and show the world that any outfit looks fabulous when it’s helping to protect the planet!
By shopping only second hand for 30 days with Oxfam, you can give everything from t-shirts to trousers a brand new lease of life.
Plus, you’ll reduce demand for new clothes, help reduce damage to our planet, and raise money to help communities hit by poverty and the climate crisis.
Sign up to get:
Handy tips and tricks on how to revamp your wardrobe sustainably
20% discount code for the Oxfam online shop
The chance of winning front row tickets to the Oxfam London Fashion Week show
Share your eco-friendly outfits on socials using #SecondHandSeptember and tag @OxfamGB
Around 1 million children with key worker parents are living below the breadline, research shows
In some parts of Britain more than two-fifths of kids in key worker households are living below the breadline
Poverty levels “likely to get worse” as ministers hold down pay
Key workers in the public sector facing another year of real-terms pay cuts
ONE in 5 (19%) key worker households have children living in poverty, new TUC research has revealed.
The research, which uses the government definition for key workers, shows that the number of kids growing up in poverty in key worker households has increased by 65,000 over the past two years to nearly 1 million (989,000) in 2022.
It forecasts that in 2023 that number will rise again to 1.1 million unless ministers take further action to support families.
North East hit hardest
The analysis – undertaken for the TUC by Landman Economics – highlights how in some regions of the UK more than two-fifths of children in key worker households are now living in poverty.
Key worker families in the North East (41%) have the highest rate of child poverty followed by the North West (29%) and London (29%) and the East of England (24%).
Scotland (8.3%) and Wales (8.9%) have the lowest rates.
Worse set to come
The TUC warned child poverty rates among key worker households are likely to get worse.
Ministers have announced another of year of real-terms pay cuts for key workers in the public sector.
The union body says this will have a devastating impact on frontline workers after a brutal decade of pay freezes and cuts:
Hospital porters’ real pay will be down by £200 this year
Maternity care assistants’ real pay will be down by £600 this year
Nurses’ real pay will be down by £1,100 this year
Paramedics’ real pay will be down by over £1,500 this year
And ministers are calling for wages to be held down for some key workers in the private sector too.
The TUC says the additional support announced by the Treasury this year to help families with energy bills will be offset by cuts to real-terms pay and other rising living costs.
Risk of recession
The TUC says government calls for widespread pay suppression will reduce household spending and demand as the UK teeters on the brink of recession.
The union body highlighted how at the same time key workers are being told to tighten their belts, city bonuses are rocketing.
TUC analysis published in June month revealed that bonuses in the financial and insurance sector grew by 27.9% over the last year, six times faster than average wages in the same period, which grew by 4.2%.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Our amazing key workers got us through the pandemic. The very least they deserve is to be able to provide for their families.
“But the government is locking too many key worker households into poverty.
“Ministers’ heartless decision to hold down pay will cause widespread hardship and put the UK at greater risk of recession.
“After the longest wage squeeze in 200 years we urgently need to get more money in the pockets of working families. This will help people get through this cost of living crisis and inject much-needed demand into our economy.
“It is particularly galling that as key workers are being told to tighten their belts, city executives are enjoying bumper bonuses. Once again ordinary working people are being forced to carry the can for a crisis made in Downing Street.”
Support needed for key worker families
The TUC is calling on the government to guarantee decent living standards by:
Raising the national minimum wage immediately.
Giving all key workers a fair pay rise that meets the cost of living
Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff.
Boosting universal credit to 80% of the real Living Wage
Significantly increasing benefit payments to children and removing the two-child limit within social security.
Children in poverty in key worker households by UK nation and region in 2022
Region
Total number of children in key worker families
Number of children in poverty in key worker families
Percentage of children in poverty in key worker families
Parents who refuse to pay child maintenance could face curfews, as Ministers plan new powers for the Child Maintenance Service.
The change is being considered as part of fresh proposals that will get more of the money that is owed to the children of separated parents.
The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) collected or arranged £1 billion in child maintenance payments last year, operating as a crucial weapon in the battle against child poverty. Child support payments help lift around 140,000 children out of poverty each year.
Curfew orders would be another method of enforcement, alongside current powers which include passport and driving license confiscation and earnings deduction orders, to tackle parents who continually refuse to pay maintenance owed.
As an alternative sanction to prison, which is costly and prevents maintenance getting to children, curfews would act as a deterrent by restricting and disrupting non-compliant parents’ lifestyles, stopping them, for example, from going out for dinner, to the pub or going on holiday.
The curfews would be monitored by an electronic tag with an electronic monitoring service applying the tag, monitoring and making sure the parent complies with the rules of the tag. If parents fail to comply, the CMS would be able refer them back to court which might then extend the curfew order or impose a prison sentence.
DWP Lords Minister Baroness Stedman-Scott said: “For children in low-income households, maintenance payments can make all the difference, lifting them out of poverty.
“We are not afraid to go after those parents who deliberately and repeatedly refuse to pay for their children.
“Curfew orders are another step towards providing the CMS with a full arsenal of powers to make sure children get the financial support they need to have the best start in life.”
This builds on a new powers introduced earlier this year to digitise all communications to parents and improvements to help the service trace the paying parent, calculate maintenance and enforce arrears more effectively.
The consultation is published here and closes on 12 August 2022.
MCKS Charitable Foundation UK provides schools across the country with support for food, toiletries and sanitary products by sending a weekly delivery to stock up their pantry cupboards.
The charity currently supports 16 schools across the country and aims to increase this to 100 within 12 months. Each school cupboard supports around 25 families a week and has become a vital life line for children and their families.
The Charity’s Chairman Les Flitcroft says: “Our charity is dedicated to providing caring and compassionate support and our school pantry cupboards provide an efficient way to get food and supplies directly to children who need them most”.
Westminster UTC School in London who has received care packages from the charity commented: “Genuinely, we are extremely grateful for the support from MCKS Charitable Foundation UK.
“Quite often our students confuse feeling sick with being hungry but we are not always in a position to offer them anything other than water, the cereal bars provided helped them throughout the exam week.
“For many of our pupils who are facing homelessness or challenging financial situations at home, having basic items such as deodorant and shower gel will mean we can practically support our students in a very important yet discreet way with this help”.
Stewards Academy in Harlow, Essex has been receiving weekly food deliveries from the charity for over a year and are extremely grateful for the support: “The help from MCKS Charity this year has helped many at a time of worry, and the support of vouchers, food, sanitary supplies and toiletries has been invaluable to our families.
“We cannot thank the charity enough for their tireless work for our community of Harlow”.
Les added: “As with any charity we rely on donations to keep our services going and we would like to partner with corporate companies who can support the charity to continue this vital support”.
Schools who feel they could benefit from this ongoing service are asked to contact the charity for further information.
One Parent Familes Scotland asked single parents accessing their services about the main issues affecting their lives and what needs to be done to tackle them.
Please give a child dignity, confidence and a sense of belonging when they go to school. Times are hard and families need your help more than ever.
A set of uniform can be the difference between a child attending and engaging in school or staying away.
There are two ways you can get involved in our Sponsor A Child appeal this summer:
Email us at info.esub@gmail.com and we will send you details of a child’s age, gender and what’s needed for a “back to school” pack. You then shop for the items and drop them in to one of our collection baskets.
Donate money and we will do the shopping for you (please ask us for our bank details if you would prefer to donate directly or if you are donating on behalf of a group or company).
You can of course just buy an item or two of new school clothing, and we will add it into a pack. Our Amazon wishlist also remains open if you would like to have something sent directly to us.
