Welcome progress to reduce child poverty has been made by the Scottish Government since the introduction of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, which has driven action through the 2018-22 and 2022-26 Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plans.
These actions are having a tangible impact, with the newly published Scottish child poverty statistics showing a four percentage point reduction in poverty levels; 22% of children were living in relative poverty in 2023/24, down from 26% in the previous yea
However, while these statistics reveal welcome progress, they also reveal that the Scottish Government’s 2023/24 interim targets on child poverty have been missed, significantly. With more than one fifth of children still having their life chances restricted by the preventable injustice of poverty, child poverty rates remain indefensibly high. This undermines the human rights of children and young people, stripping away their opportunities to learn, grow and develop fully through happy and thriving childhoods.
We are therefore deeply concerned that modelling by IPPR Scotland shows that we are currently on a path to missing the Scottish Government’s legally binding 2030 targets, possibly by some distance.
In this submission, we set out some of the concrete things that the Scottish Government can do now, to reduce and eradicate the injustice of child poverty.
You can read it in the window below, or download it from here.
The Poverty Alliance Submission to the Scottish Government's Call for Evidence on the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026-2031 2
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