Meeting of the Parliament

Meeting date: Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Official Report 971KB pdf

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Child Poverty

The next item of business is a statement by Shirley-Anne Somerville on the tackling child poverty delivery plan annual progress report for 2022-23. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement, so there should be no interventions or interruptions.

14:24  

Tackling poverty and protecting people from harm is one of the three critical missions for this Government. It is a shared endeavour across all portfolios—and, indeed, across Scotland. I want to be unequivocally clear from the outset that this Government is committed to driving forward action at the pace and scale that is required to ensure that our statutory child poverty targets are met.

Today, several documents have been published. I have published the annual progress report on child poverty for 2022-23. That reflects the initial implementation of actions set out in “Best Start, Bright Futures”, our second tackling child poverty delivery plan, which was published last March, alongside additional action taken during the reporting year to strengthen protections in response to the cost of living crisis. In addition, recommendations from the poverty and inequality commission were published today, which I welcome.

Alongside the progress report, we have published updated modelling. That estimates that, as a result of our policies, around 90,000 fewer children are expected to live in relative or absolute poverty this year, with levels of relative and absolute poverty 9 percentage points lower than would otherwise have been the case. That includes lifting an estimated 50,000 children out of poverty through investment in our Scottish child payment.

That considerable impact reinforces the importance of our actions to reduce child poverty. It also shows what we can do to tackle child poverty head on within our limited powers and fixed budget, and shows that we can make a difference. I am, however, acutely aware that I am doing so with one hand tied behind my back. It is only with the full powers of an independent nation—[Interruption.]—that Governments can use all levers such as economic, social security and employment to tackle poverty and inequalities. [Interruption.]

Members! I am sorry, cabinet secretary. I remind all members that there should be no interventions or interruptions.

Thank you, Presiding Officer.

Recently we have seen a cost of living crisis and the most challenging economic conditions in living memory, which no one predicted when “Best Start, Bright Futures” was published. That has caused unprecedented hardship. Spiralling energy costs have led to people having to choose between heating and eating, with United Kingdom Government support for energy bills being withdrawn in March. Soaring inflation has caused food prices to increase by nearly 20 per cent over the past year—and considerably more for some staples.

Continually rising costs, due to UK Government decisions including the £100 billion cost to the UK economy of a hard Brexit, economic mismanagement under the Liz Truss Government and the on-going impact of a decade of austerity, have resulted in even greater pressure on public service finances and pushed low income families to breaking point. In the face of that challenge, we have had to make difficult decisions in order to prioritise immediate support for the people most impacted by the cost of living crisis, as well as to meet our requirements to deliver a balanced budget—a budget that has also been reduced due to inflation.

As the report sets out, we estimate that £3 billion was invested across a range of programmes targeted at low income households last year, with £1.25 billion directly benefiting children. That represents increases of £0.43 billion and £0.15 billion respectively, compared with 2021-22, and vital support at a crucial time for households.

The report provides the latest child poverty statistics, which relate to 2021-22 and the final year of our previous tackling child poverty delivery plan. Although trends for poverty rates are stable on three target measures, including relative and absolute poverty, there is a low upward trend in persistent poverty. However, those levels do not yet capture the impact of the expansion and increase in value of the Scottish child payment, alongside other measures reflected within the modelling published today.

The annual progress report sets out that, as a result of action taken in 2022-23, 40 of the 101 actions set out in “Best Start, Bright Futures” are complete or on-going, with a further 39 in progress and 19 in the early stages of development. The report also outlines the action that we have taken to provide immediate support to families as part of our overall approach to tackling child poverty.

We doubled our Scottish child payment to £20 a week from April 2022, delivered our planned expansion to under-16s and provided a further increase to £25 a week in November last year. That was described by anti-poverty organisations as “a watershed moment” for tackling child poverty in Scotland.

That was an increase of 150 per cent over eight months. It means that our five family payments, including the Scottish child payment, best start foods and best start grants, could be worth more than £10,000 by the time an eligible child turns six—over £8,000 more than is available for families in England and Wales—and more than £20,000 by the time an eligible child is 16.

By the end of March, 303,000 children were in receipt of the Scottish child payment, very close to the predictions of the Scottish Fiscal Commission. However, we are not complacent and we are committed to doing everything that we can to ensure that eligible families take up that unparalleled support.

Over 2022-23, we invested £84 million in discretionary housing payments to support people with housing costs and mitigate the UK Government’s bedroom tax. We also worked with our local authority partners to mitigate the UK Government’s unfair benefits cap as fully as possible within devolved powers, backed by £8.8 million this year and last. That is expected to help up to 4,000 families with around 14,000 children, many of them lone-parent households who are disproportionately impacted.

In the past year, we also acted to increase the value of eight Scottish Government benefits by 6 per cent from 1 April 2022—almost double the planned rate—and further increased 12 benefits by 10.1 per cent from April this year, providing more money to people who need it most.

Despite the significant pressure facing the Scottish budget, we took the opportunity to go further where we could through our emergency budget review, increasing the immediate support available to families. That included doubling the final bridging payment in December 2022 to £260, with payments made in 2022 putting a total of £92 million in the pockets of the families of around 143,000 school-age children at a time when they needed it most. We doubled investment in our fuel insecurity fund to £20 million, helping tens of thousands of people to meet their energy costs, and will triple it to £30 million in the year ahead. In addition to increasing investment for our Scottish welfare fund, committing £1.4 million for the islands cost crisis emergency fund and providing £1.8 million to tackle food insecurity, we introduced emergency legislation to give tenants increased protection from rent increases and evictions.

We have also taken important steps to deliver change in the longer term. For example, in early years, we have set out our approach to expanding our childcare programme over the rest of this session of the Parliament and commenced early phasing of community-level systems of school-age childcare with a further £15 million committed for that important work in the year ahead. To help to drive forward the whole-system change that is needed, we established new pathfinder approaches in Dundee and Glasgow and invested £32 million of whole-family wellbeing funding to help to deliver a long-term shift towards earlier, preventative intervention for families.

Although we have made vital progress, we recognise that the challenging circumstances of the past year have meant that it has not been possible to deliver the levels of investment in key measures that were anticipated when “Best Start, Bright Futures” was published. That included making the difficult decision to reallocate funds from our employability services to enable us to respond to the cost of living crisis. However, in the year ahead, we will make up to £108 million available for the delivery of employability support and will work with partners to significantly increase the reach of our services.

Scotland’s public finances are under more pressure than at any time in the Parliament’s history. We fully recognise that tough choices will need to be made about existing budgets to drive the progress that is needed, including looking at how we target our investment to deliver the greatest impact, and we will not shy away from the hard choices and tough decisions that will be needed. At the anti-poverty summit that the First Minister convened in May, our stakeholders, partners and people with lived experience reinforced the point that the approach that we are taking is the right one and that we must continue to deliver with the urgency, pace and scale that are required.

We are determined to do more to tackle and reduce child poverty. As is clear from what I have outlined, in the past year, despite the challenges of our economic and budgetary circumstances, we have taken action to tackle child poverty head on and progressed the actions set out in “Best Start, Bright Futures”. We have provided immediate support to families that are impacted by the unprecedented cost of living crisis and have gone further to increase protections for families and mitigate the harm of UK Government policies. The modelling that was published today reinforces the point that we are not just holding back the tide of poverty in Scotland but turning it, with 90,000 fewer children expected to live in poverty this year as a result of the measures that we are taking.

We are committed to further investment in the coming year to accelerate progress and will strengthen our partnership approach, including through our new deals for business and local government. As a Government, we will continue to do everything in the scope of our limited powers and fixed budget to ensure that the statutory child poverty targets are met and to drive forward progress with urgency and at the scale required. We will also continue to make the case for the full powers of a normal nation so that we can fully tackle poverty and create the fairer nation that we all long to see.

The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in her statement. I intend to allow around 20 minutes for questions, after which we will move on to the next item of business. I would be grateful if members who wish to put a question were to press their request-to-speak buttons now.

The Scottish Government claims that it has one hand tied around its back, yet it is one of the most powerful devolved Governments in the world, if not the most powerful. This is the same Scottish National Party Government that claimed that it could set up an independent country in 18 months, yet it will take nearly nine years for it to fully use devolved welfare powers, after handing responsibility back to the UK Government.

Turning to children in temporary accommodation, organisations such as Shelter Scotland, Poverty Alliance and Crisis have warned ministers about the record number of children in Scotland who are trapped in temporary accommodation. That number is up 120 per cent since 2014. The SNP-Green record on the issue is shameful.

The Scottish Government always tries to pat itself on the back when it comes to tackling child poverty and inequality, but Shelter has said:

“We cannot tolerate inaction any longer. Too many children are paying the price.”

What is the cabinet secretary’s response to that comment, and why has her Government not done enough to support children who are trapped in temporary and emergency accommodation?

I am perhaps not surprised but am still astonished at the sheer brass neck of a Scottish Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament saying that we should be doing more. I will give one example of how that is difficult. At the same time that we doubled the Scottish child payment to £20 pounds per week per eligible child, the UK Government cut universal credit by the same amount.

Imagine if, for a change, the people of Scotland had two Governments trying to tackle child poverty rather than just one. I will give one example—I could give more, Presiding Officer—about how it is very difficult to alleviate child poverty when there is one Government in Scotland that is not just doing nothing but actually has policies that push children into poverty. On the facts of affordable housing, yes, we are very committed to ensuring that we as a Government are alleviating the number of people, particularly children, who are in temporary accommodation. The Minister for Housing will say more in due course about the actions that will be taken. From April 2007 to the end of December 2022, we delivered 118,124 affordable homes to ensure that we were helping people who required that assistance. I say again, to provide context, that we have delivered more than three times as many socially rented homes per head of population than the UK Government has done in England over that period.

Although we should all welcome the new modelling that predicts that 90,000 fewer children are expected to live in poverty, it is deeply concerning to see that there is an upward trend in levels of persistent poverty across Scotland. That needs serious and focused action in order for the Government to meet the targets that we agreed across the Parliament, and any issues and current interventions must be dealt with speedily.

I have previously raised the issue with the First Minister of the disparity between eligibility for and uptake of the Scottish child payment, with up to 60,000 children in Scotland facing the possibility of missing out on receiving the payment. What action has the cabinet secretary taken to address those concerns, and will she continue consider the idea of automating that payment?

It is revealing that the cabinet secretary was only five paragraphs into the statement on child poverty before she shifted the focus back on to the constitution. The reality is that people across Scotland are being failed by two Governments who are too focused on their own internal issues rather than on relentlessly tackling poverty. Will the cabinet secretary focus on the detail of eradicating child poverty and outline to the chamber how the new modelling will affect the Scottish Government’s ability to hit its own targets on absolute poverty, relative poverty and persistent poverty?

There were a number of points in there. I will try to cover as many as I can in the time that I have.

Paul O’Kane rightly points to the really concerning figures about persistent poverty, which I absolutely recognise. He points to the work that the Government needs to undertake around the uptake of the Scottish child payment. I add another layer to that, which is about the uptake of universal credit. Some work has been published recently that shows that there are many families across Scotland that could be eligible for universal credit but that have not taken it up.

In the context of the Scottish child payment, there have been marketing campaigns before, and we are keen to do more this year to ensure that take-up by those eligible is further improved, particularly among the six-to-16s age group, for which the number is slightly lower than for the under-sixes, the payment for which has been in place for longer.

I say with the greatest respect to Paul O’Kane that this is not a discussion about the constitution; it is about the context, and the context that we are in is very important when it comes to alleviating child poverty—the UK context is very important.

I point out gently to Paul O’Kane—I am quite happy to be corrected on this if I am wrong—that, on aspects around welfare, it does not appear at this stage that there would be any change in some of the most concerning policies if Labour got into power. We would still need to mitigate the benefit cap, issues around the two-child clause and the impact of discretionary housing payments if Labour got into power. There is genuine sadness about that genuine context, which this Parliament needs to take into account. Paul O’Kane might not like the fact that his party at UK level is not changing its welfare policies—I would encourage him to ensure that it does—but it is important that we take account of that context.

Before we go on to the next question, I suggest to members that we get out of the habit of commenting constantly when other members are on their feet, whether putting or responding to questions. It is wholly at odds with the requirements of the code of conduct.

I am aware, too, that there are many members who wish to put a question, so we will need to pick up the pace.

Witnesses at the Social Justice and Social Security Committee have told us about the challenges of the UK welfare system. Will the cabinet secretary provide data on the impact of UK Government policies on child poverty in Scotland and outline how the Tories’ actions are hampering Scottish Government policies?

I again hear groans coming from the Scottish Tories. They might not like the question or, indeed, the answer, but the context is important. The decade of austerity and welfare cuts has been hugely damaging and is driving more people into poverty.

Analysis that was published by the Scottish Government last year showed that reversing key UK Government welfare reforms that have occurred since 2015 would put £780 million into the pockets of Scottish households and lift an estimated 70,000 people in Scotland out of poverty. That is the damage that UK Government policies are doing to the people of Scotland.

The first two thematic areas in the progress report are related to employment. The Scottish Government itself has said that employment remains the best route out of poverty. I completely agree, so why is the Scottish Government cutting funding on skills and for college and apprenticeship places; creating uncertainly around funding for the developing the young workforce programme; slashing employability support; and cutting university funding? Why did the Withers review conclude that the SNP Government has failed to provide decisive leadership or direction in any of those areas over the past 16 years?

I have missed my exchanges with Mr Kerr since I moved on from the education portfolio. Let me remind him of some of the challenges that we still have. The real challenge in what we want to do, particularly around fair work and ensuring that work pays a respectable and fair wage, is that employment law is reserved. If employment law were devolved to the Scottish Parliament, we could be doing so much more.

For the sake of time, however, we have had a list of aspects that Mr Kerr says the Scottish Government should be spending more on. Incidentally, he is also the person who thinks that we should be raising less tax, which would decrease yet further the amount of money that we have to spend. Once again, we have a litany of things that we should be spending money on, a demand that we should actually be raising less in taxation and an expectation that the Scottish Government should somehow balance a budget. That says all that we need to know about the literacy of Mr Kerr’s economic plans.

The survey evidence charted in the delivery report indicates that 97 per cent of parents and carers of three to five-year-olds who use early learning and childcare are satisfied with the quality of that provision. Given that, how will the superb roll-out of the early learning and childcare programme by the Scottish Government and our local authority partners influence the future development of early learning and school-age childcare programmes that are viewed by the overwhelming majority of parents as being beneficial in helping them to enter the labour market?

Mr Swinney is right to point to the very high levels of satisfaction with early learning and childcare here, in Scotland. This is the only part of the UK to offer 1,140 hours per year of funded ELC to all three and four-year-olds and to eligible two-year-olds, putting the child first. We are making about £1 billion-worth of investment in that, saving families £5,000 per eligible child per year. That success, which a number of ministers—including Mr Swinney—should take some credit for is something that we are absolutely determined to build on as we look to improve what is already the most generous system of ELC to be provided in the UK.

Last week, councils were informed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities that the funding that it expected from the Scottish Government to support the holiday food programme would not be forthcoming. Councils were left scrambling around their already stretched budgets as they looked for other money to cover the shortfall in order to ensure food for 27,000 children this summer. Even as we passed the date on which the funding payment was made last year, the Government still refused to give any indication of funding, limiting councils’ ability to plan. Then, at the 11th hour, it dealt that devastating blow.

The cabinet secretary has just said that the Government will not shy away from hard choices and tough decisions. Does she really believe that removing funding, and potentially leaving many families struggling to feed their children this summer, is justifiable?

As the First Minister announced at the beginning of April, we are investing £15 million this year in building a system of school-age childcare. He noted that that investment should be targeted at the families who need it most. Our priority now is to support and deliver meaningful and lasting change for families and communities by building a system of school-age childcare that provides care before and after school as well as during the holidays. That system must recognise the need for reliable childcare before and after school during term time as well as for full days during the holidays. That is where our focus has been shifted.

If Ms Duncan-Glancy wishes further expenditure to be made, I humbly suggest that she might also have to suggest where the money for that would come from.

According to researchers at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK households have paid £7 billion since Brexit to cover the extra costs caused by trade barriers on food imports from the European Union. We know that more people are now in need of food banks, although data from the Trussell Trust indicates that the Scottish child payment may have helped to slow the pace of demand for emergency food parcels here, in Scotland, during the past year. What impact is the rise in costs having on the Scottish Government’s ability to tackle child poverty?

As I said in my opening statement, the hard Brexit chosen by the Scottish Conservatives and now supported by the Labour party has had, and will continue to have, a devastating impact on families right across Scotland. Brexit has led to increased inflation and prices, which has had the impact on families that we see in the figures released today.

Those rising costs and inflation have also had an impact on our ability to tackle poverty, and we have had to make tough choices to rebalance the Scottish budget, which was estimated to be worth £1.7 billion less in November 2022 than it was worth when it was introduced to Parliament, in December 2021. That is another example of how exceptionally difficult it is for this Government to assist people as much as we would like to, although we are determined to do so and to meet our statutory targets.

Parliament has agreed that this item of business should finish in approximately half a minute, but several members still wish to put questions. If members can keep their questions and responses concise, we will endeavour to get more questions in.

The reports are a difficult read. On some measures, poverty is stable. On others, particularly for persistent poverty, there is an upward trend despite the Scottish Government spending a significantly increased amount of money on social security. How much does the cabinet secretary estimate it would cost to completely eradicate child poverty?

Mr Rennie poses a hypothetical question, but an interesting one. What makes it more difficult—before anyone groans, I note that I am providing the context that we are working in—is that we are working to mitigate and take people out of child poverty but we are seeing the implications of policies elsewhere that are dragging people back in.

How much we have to spend very much depends on, for example, whether the UK Government will take action to have a real living wage right across the UK, to ensure that we deliver a meaningful way out of poverty when people go into work. That is just one reason why I cannot give a specific answer to the question. I hope that the modelling that we have presented today will help us along the way.

A report from the Child Poverty Action Group shows that the cost of bringing up a child in Scotland will be lowered by 31 per cent, or nearly £24,000, through the doubling of the Scottish child payment and delivery of the expansion of free school meals. If that is what can be achieved with limited resources and powers, how much further could we go if we had full powers?

As we have demonstrated in the modelling that has been published today, the Government’s focus on tackling child poverty is making a significant difference. The impact of not just the Scottish child payment but the 1,140 hours is very significant.

One of the real challenges with the powers that we have is our constant requirement to mitigate, whether that is against the benefit cap or other aspects of the current UK system that make it very difficult for us to be able to lift children out of poverty. I ask members to imagine the debate that we could have in this chamber if we did not have to spend that money mitigating but could use it to lift more children out of poverty more quickly than we can at the moment.

In 2016, SNP ministers pledged to deliver a national allowance for children living in kinship care. Kinship carers play a vital role in providing caring and nurturing homes. Why have ministers failed to deliver on their 2016 pledge?

I thank Miles Briggs for his continuing interest in that really important issue, which I have discussed with him previously. I know that he knows that it is not simply about the Scottish Government—we are also working with COSLA and local authorities to put that allowance in place. I am happy to ensure that the minister with responsibility for kinship care gives him an update on where those negotiations are at this time.

I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of her statement. Increased problem debt is likely to be a long-term implication of the cost of living crisis, with households managing extremely limited finances or negative incomes, and we know that that will disproportionately affect women and single-parent households. Will the Scottish Government consider stopping the collection of public sector debt for at least six months, to help households to use money on essentials such as food, energy and housing costs?

I thank Maggie Chapman for raising the very important issue of the number of people who are experiencing debt—or even the fear of going into debt. She will be aware that, when we talk about public sector debt, a number of actors are involved—most obviously local government, but not just local government. This is not an issue that the Scottish Government can take on by itself.

A number of local authorities have taken decisions to eradicate some of the debt in some areas. For example, some local authorities have looked at school meal debt. However, that is something for individual local authorities to have a position on.

What is the cabinet secretary’s response to the reports highlighting that more than two thirds of children who are in poverty live in working households?

It is absolutely unacceptable that two thirds of children who live in poverty live in a household where at least one person works. That is deeply concerning. That is why the action that we are taking around the drivers of poverty reduction include significant investment in Scottish Government benefits to assist with that, and employability services. However, I go back to a point that I made before, about the real need across the UK—because that is where the power lies—for a fair work agenda and a real living wage, to ensure that work is genuinely a way out of poverty.

That concludes the ministerial statement. There will be a small pause before we move to the next item of business.