The UK government’s benefit cap, two child limit and young parent penalty all undermine Scotland’s national child poverty mission. They hurt the very families rightly identified as ‘priority groups’ in the Scottish government’s child poverty plan. Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland and The Poverty Alliance have organised a fringe meeting at the SNP conference to discuss the impact on children and families and discuss how the policies can be challenged at Westminster, and their effects mitigated by Holyrood and local government.
Households subject to the benefit cap will from April be battling the cost of living crisis £65 worse off than they would be if they were not capped, unless the cap is uprated, new analysis from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) finds.
Removing the cap would mean an additional £65 a week, on average, in the pockets of capped households, meaning an average capped couple with 2 children would be £85 below the poverty line.
A short Cost of the School Day briefing setting out what we’ve heard about school uniform from learners, families and their schools and what we think is important for stakeholders to bear in mind when responding to the current Scottish Government consultation on statutory national uniform policy guidance.
"The cost of living crisis has pushed many families to the brink as a difficult winter looms. With around 2 million children living in households affected by deductions, the Work and Pensions Select Committee is right to say that now is time to pause these repayments.
Families have had months of dread watching prices soar while government has delayed and delayed any response, pushing many ever closer to the brink. The new prime minister has the opportunity to demonstrate that she stands with hard-pressed families and will act in the interests of the nation’s children, who have been invisible for far too long. Long term investment in a social security system that protects kids from poverty is an essential starting point.
'Educational inequalities cannot be solved by the education system alone.’ The concluding words of the latest IFS Deaton Review report into inequalities in education came as absolutely no surprise to us here at CPAG, and no doubt to those working on the frontline within our education system either. Despite decades of initiatives, strategies and hard work being undertaken by schools, the disadvantage gap has been stubbornly persistent over the past 20 years. It’s yet more evidence that the work of our schools is being held back by the levels of poverty children are facing.
From breakfast clubs to sports activities, before- and after-school provision benefits children and their families hugely. These clubs and activities help children engage with learning and feel fulfilled at school, and they help parents financially by allowing them to work or take up more hours. Unfortunately, many families don’t get to benefit from these clubs, either because they’re too expensive or because they’re not available.