ADDITIONAL funding has been pledged to tackle “deep-rooted” inequality and child poverty in Scotland, with a focus on improving support available for disabled parents.
The Scottish Government has announced action on these issues will be accelerated through £7.4 million of additional investment. The funding will be made available to local authorities specifically to help disabled parents and enhance the support they get.
It will also be allocated to the Social Innovation Partnership, which invests in alternative approaches to tackling poverty and improving lives.
Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Local Government Aileen Campbell said: “This increased funding delivers not only on our commitment to invest £50m through our Tackling Child Poverty Fund, but also to target support to disabled parents to access employment.
“The impacts of Covid have been particularly damaging to disabled people’s employment prospects and it is right that we invest now to enhance the support available.
“Our long-standing Social Innovation Partnership is supporting life-changing and innovative work to tackle child poverty and this increased investment will help to accelerate action.”
She added: “We remain firmly committed to eradicating child poverty in Scotland and halving the disability employment gap, and this new investment takes us one step closer to realising these ambitions.”
Scottish Government figures show that in 2018-19, almost a quarter (23%) of children were living in poverty.
Ministers have set a target of reducing the proportion of children living in relative poverty to 18% by 2023, ahead of a cut to 10% by the end of the decade.
Last week charity the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) warned a new £10-a-week Scottish Child Payment would not be enough to meet the “ambitious” targets.
It said an analysis shows that without further action, Scotland will miss its interim child poverty target by 4% – leaving 40,000 children trapped in poverty as a result.
Chris Birt, JRF deputy director for Scotland, said: “The Scottish Child Payment is a welcome start, but on its own it does not go nearly far enough.”
He added: “A plan to tackle Scotland’s stubbornly high poverty levels must be a priority in this election.”
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