Child poverty predicted to rise in most of UK except Scotland

Child poverty is on course to increase in the UK by the end of this parliament, with only Scotland bucking the trend, according to analysis by a respected poverty charity.

This is essentially because the Westminster government continues to discriminate against children born into larger families. 

The two-child cap means that only the oldest two siblings get help if their parents fall into poverty - that is pushing many families into misery. In contrast, the Scottish government pays the Scottish Child Payment to every child in the family. 

In Scotland child poverty rates will have fallen by 2029 under current economic projections, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said. Scotland’s relative success – its child poverty rates are projected to be 10 percentage points lower than England’s by 2029 – is attributed to Holyrood’s more generous child benefits and its plans to scrap the two-child benefit limit.

But child poverty in Scotland is still too high - in part because of the energy profiteering caused by Westminster’s privatisation of Scotland’s energy infrastructure. Poor Scottish families pay more than any in Europe to heat their homes and cook their food. 

Child Poverty rates in the UK are rising fast in international comparisons

 

Child poverty in the UK is rising up the international league tables and it is now much higher than in comparable European countries. 

Scots can look at other similar-sized countries, many without Scotland’s wealth of natural resources, and be confident that under independence, Scotland would be able to do much more to end the kind of deep poverty which damages children’s life chances. 

International comparisons on child poverty

A report from UNICEF provided us with comparable child poverty statistics for most advanced economies. It showed the rapid progress the UK has made in terms of child poverty - in the wrong direction. With a rise of 20% in a decade, the UK is doing twice as badly on this metric as any other country in the report. 

The UK has zoomed in the wrong direction

Over the last decade, the UK has shot into the red with a 20% rise in the number of children living in poverty. It is very far below any of the other 39 countries which feature in the UNICEF report. The next worst country is Iceland with a rise of 11% in the rate - about half what the UK has let slip.  

At the other end of the table, Poland has reduced child poverty by nearly 40%. Also pushing into the green are Slovenia, Latvia and Lithuania who have all reduced child poverty by almost one third. 

Not only has the UK surpassed every other country with the speed of change but in absolute terms it is also far below many countries that are less wealthy. One in 10 children are in poverty in Denmark - nearly one in three in the UK

In many of the Scandinavian countries that have comparable geography and population size to Scotland, about one in ten children live in poverty. Denmark is at the top of the list at just under one in ten. 

Wealthy countries like Germany, Belgium and Canada have an absolute rate of child poverty between 15 and 17%. In the UK, the most recent figures from the Social Metrics Commission show it is around 36%. 

Britain ranked 37th out of the 39 nations in the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) based on a measure combining income poverty rate for children and the country’s success in reducing child poverty in a time of growing prosperity. 

The iniquitous prices Scottish families pay for energy makes the situation hard for many

But the Scottish Government’s efforts to reduce child poverty are challenged by the extortionate energy bills families have to pay. Fuel poverty rates in Scotland are more than double the rate in England. At 31%, they are far higher than any EU country - and four times the levels of countries like Scandinavia or Ireland.

Scotland is rich in energy resources - Scotland makes double its population share of UK electricity. Scotland produces a lot of renewable energy - and it could produce more. But the profit from this goes to swell the coffers of private companies owned by international investors like BlackRock and the Qatar Investment Authority. 

The decision to privatise energy was an ideologically driven experiment by Westminster Conservative governments of the late 20th century that Scotland didn’t vote for. 

Conclusion: An independent Scotland could do better

Many Scots have been disappointed by the current UK government’s determination to keep the damaging two child cap in place that discriminates against children in larger families. 

Scottish families are also counting the cost of other Westminster policies that drive poverty - such as handing over Scotland’s energy infrastructure to money men who are bleeding Scots dry just to heat their homes. 

As part of the UK, Scotland can only partially mitigate Westminster’s policies. It doesn’t hold the levers of power. The decisions Westminster makes are not based on what Scotland needs or what her people vote for. 

The appalling rates of child poverty in the UK are the result of choices. They are choices Scotland’s people did not make. An independent Scotland will be free to make different ones and to learn from the example of other nations which are tackling child poverty.


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