News – Warm words must lead to urgent action on poverty

Poverty Alliance Policy & Campaigns Manager Ruth Boyle

Reacting to today’s Programme for Government, Poverty Alliance chief executive Peter Kelly said: “It’s good that the First Minister talked about his strong commitment to ending the injustice of child poverty in our wealthy nation. But before today’s Programme for Government more than 100 of our members came together calling for action like boosting the Scottish Child Payment to £40 a week, affordable housing, and the delivery of stronger social security through a Minimum Income Guarantee. Many of these calls were not progressed within today’s Programme for Government.

“The First Minister was right to highlight the importance of welfare advice services that help people get the support they’re entitled to through social security. While a continued commitment to invest in the third sector is positive, the Scottish Government need to be clear as to how they will deliver long-standing promises for fair funding for the community and voluntary organisations that deliver that advice.

“He talked about affordable childcare and extra support to help people into work – but these commitments need to be matched with adequate investment. The Poverty and Inequality Commission have been clear that existing interventions are not at the scale necessary to deliver the change needed to meet our child poverty targets.

“He talked about closing the attainment gap in schools. But the latest figures show that children from poorer backgrounds are still being held back by poorer educational outcomes, so we need to hear what the Scottish Government is going to do differently.

“We welcome the fact that a Community Wealth Building Bill will be introduced into Parliament. But we need to make sure that it puts the voices of people in poverty at its heart, and starts to build new local economies that place wellbeing at their heart, and start to lessen Scotland’s unjust inequalities of wealth and power.

“We’re very disappointed that there will be no Human Rights Bill for Scotland. Poverty is a breach of people’s human rights, and we need to make sure they have the power to hold public bodies to account when their rights aren’t respected. The delay to this Bill will make it more difficult for the Scottish Government to deliver on their core mission of eradicating child poverty.

“We are a country that believes in justice and compassion. People in Scotland want our political leaders to unlock our country’s vast wealth, build better budgets that give people the means to build a better future, and to create a true wellbeing economy that supports fair work, and a just transition to the net zero future that we urgently need.”