Scottish Government misses interim child poverty targets

The Scottish Government has missed its interim child poverty target, fresh figures today confirm.

Child poverty for 2023-24 currently stands at 22 per cent – four percentage points higher than the legislative target.

While there has been a reduction in the last year, down from 26 per cent in 2022-23, the three-year average found little change in the broader trend.

Poverty campaigners have dubbed the failure a “national embarrassment” and “consequence of collective political negligence”.

But the Scottish Government blamed UK ministers for “holding back” progress.

The three-year average, covering 2020-23, shows almost one in four children (23 per cent) are living in poverty, while one in five working-age Scots are.

Pensioners are the group least likely to be in poverty, though the figure is 15 per cent.

It is estimated that 21 per cent of Scotland’s population were living in relative poverty during that time – around 1.1 million people each year.

The definition of relative poverty is if a household’s income is less than 60 per cent the UK median.

The government set child poverty reduction targets in 2017, with the aim of having fewer than 10 per cent of children in relative poverty by 2030.

The legislation also set interim targets to have fewer than 18 per cent of children in poverty by 2023/24.

Social justice secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Our policies are having to work harder than ever to make a difference, against a backdrop of a continuing cost of living crisis, rising energy costs and UK Government decision making. However, we know these policies are working.

“Statistics published today show that, although we have not met the interim child poverty targets, the proportion of children living in relative poverty has reduced and year-on-year rates are now lower than they have been since 2014-15, while the proportion in absolute poverty has also fallen with the annual figure the lowest in 30 years.”

Oxfam Scotland said the missed target highlighted a “failure of leadership” on tackling child poverty.

The charity’s advocacy advisor Lewis Ryder-Jones said: “Poverty is a political choice, and our political leaders need to ask themselves: why are children trapped in poverty while the wealthy get ever richer? They insist child poverty is a priority, yet they continue to shield the wealthiest from paying their fair share of tax. That isn’t only unjust, it’s a failure of leadership.”

But others have welcomed the reduction over the last year. John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said: “These latest statistics show that Holyrood polices, especially the Scottish child payment, are working to shift the dial for children in Scotland in the face of poverty rising to record highs across the rest of the UK.

“It is obviously disappointing that progress falls short of the interim targets, but the statistics show that when government invests to support families then child poverty will fall.”

Separate figures also found trends in persistent poverty have changed little since 2010.

Between 2019 and 2023, 14 per cent of Scots were in persistent poverty – three percentage points higher than between 2018 and 2022.

Not everyone in poverty is in persistent poverty. More than a third of people in poverty move out of poverty each year. At the same time, a similar number of people who were not in poverty in the previous year, enter or re-enter poverty.