Comes ahead of Scottish budget
New evidence backs the case for Scotland to increase to the Scottish child payment in the budget statement next month, says the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland.
A research project bringing together economists and social policy academics from the London School of Economics (LSE) and the universities of York and Glasgow has found “statistically significant reductions in both child material deprivation and food insecurity relative to England, after the introduction of the SCP (Scottish child payment)” and that “concerns that the SCP creates work disincentives are overplayed.”
Responding to the publication of the findings John Dickie, director of CPAG in Scotland, said: "It is vital that the Finance Secretary Shona Robison takes note of these findings in considering her budget options.
“She has promised to spend the money freed up in her budget by the abolition of the two-child limit on the most effective measures to further reduce child poverty. The evidence is clear and mounting that increasing the Scottish child payment is the most straight-forward, cost-effective and impactful tool she has.”
By comparing trends north and south of the border the researchers found that the effects of the Scottish child payment (SCP) are “considerable in size” and “that both material deprivation and food insecurity would have been between eight and nine percentage points higher in Scotland without the SCP.”
The findings are based on analysis of the DWP’s UK-wide Family Resources Survey. Alongside interviews with low-income families in Scotland and in England they offer the first comparative study across UK nations of the impact that the unique Scottish child payment is having.
The payment is already widely credited with lifting at least 40,000 children out of poverty at a time when child poverty across the UK continued to rise.
CPAG modeling suggests that investing the full £155 million that the Scottish government has set aside to fund two-child limit mitigation payments would raise the Scottish child payment to £37.50, lifting another 10 000 children out of poverty .
The mitigation payments are no longer required following the UK government's decision to abolish the policy at source. Campaigners say the money freed up in the Scottish budget would go a long way toward the £40 a week payment they say is needed by the end of this Parliament.
Professor Emma Tominey from the University of York led the research. She said: “Our study of families’ experiences in England and Scotland is clear in suggesting that the Scottish child payment is having a significant impact in reducing family hardship, child deprivation and food insecurity. Fears that the payment creates a work disincentive are also overplayed. There is no evidence that the SCP creates meaningful work disincentives - partly because for many families the cliff-edge exists at such a high level of hours worked as to make any potential constraint non-binding.”
Professor Kitty Stewart of the LSE was part of the project team. She said: “Our results show that things are easier for Scottish families relative to English families as a result of the SCP. But wider pressures mean material deprivation is still rising both north and south of the border - just less quickly in Scotland.
"To make a bigger difference, the Scottish Government should build on its investment so far and increase the value of the payment.”
