Following a briefing from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), I’ve called on the Westminster Government to take decisive action in the upcoming Budget to tackle child poverty and ease the cost-of-living crisis facing families across the UK.
The latest CPAG pre-Budget report reinforces calls that targeted social security investment is the single most effective way to improve children’s life chances, boost long-term economic growth, and reduce the burden on public services. While welcoming recent progress – including the belated abolition of the two-child benefit limit – the SNP is demanding that the Chancellor use the Budget to fix remaining structural flaws in the welfare system and deliver direct financial relief to household budgets.
The Scottish Government’s transformative policy package includes:
- The Scottish Child Payment which provides £28.20 per week per child under 16, a unique top-up benefit keeping tens of thousands of children out of relative poverty.
- Universal early learning and childcare which delivers 1,140 hours a year of funded childcare to all 3- and 4-year-olds without rigid employment restrictions.
- Universal free school meals being extended to all Primary 1 to Primary 5 pupils across Scotland to ensure children are fed and ready to learn.
To address CPAG concerns the SNP is calling on the Westminster Treasury to deliver a budget package that includes:
- Abolishing the overall Benefit Cap: Removing the restriction that cancels out essential support for larger low-income families.
- Repealing the Bedroom Tax: Eliminating the under-occupancy penalty across the UK and releasing tens of millions of pounds in devolved Scottish mitigation budgets.
- Reforming Universal Credit deductions & ipfront childcare Cmcosts: Ending high automated debt deductions and fixing upfront cost barriers for working parents.
- Unfreezing the tax-free personal allowance: Putting money back into the budgets of low- and middle-income working families.
- Removing 20% VAT on petrol and diesel: Cutting fuel charges for the duration of the cost-of-living crisis to support reliant households.
- Delivering Labour’s promised £300 energy bill reduction: Offering immediate relief to households struggling with energy bills.
However, the SNP has warned that devolved anti-poverty measures continue to face severe headwinds due to reserved Westminster policy decisions, forcing Holyrood to spend millions from its own budget on mitigating those Whitehall policies.
I believe that reducing child poverty is not just a moral duty, it is the smartest economic investment a government can make. In Scotland, the SNP Scottish Government has shown what can be achieved when social security is used as a foundation to lift families up.
While we welcomed the belated scrapping of the two-child limit, the Westminster government cannot stop there. Devolved efforts to eradicate child poverty are still being held back by Westminster austerity and restrictive benefit caps.
In this Budget, the Chancellor must act to support struggling families by ending unfair benefit restrictions, unfreezing tax thresholds, and cutting energy and transport costs. The Westminster government should match the Scottish Government’s ambition and give every child the best possible start in life.
