Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner Tam Baillie said children who don't get enough to eat are not able to thrive
The Scottish Government should top up child benefit payments for the poorest families in Scotland, to make sure they have enough money to feed their children.
Scotland’s Children’s Commissioner Tam Baillie made the call saying that unless payments increase the countries least well off young people won’t be able to thrive.
The Scottish Government is currently consulting on the new social security powers devolved under the Scotland Act 2016.
Charities report that a third of people depending on foodbanks are children.
Previously the independent Working Group on Child Poverty said ministers should increase child benefits by £5 per child to lift 30,000 children out of poverty.
Showing support for payments to be increased, Baillie said: “We know that almost one in five children in Scotland is living in relative poverty and charities report that a third of people depending on foodbanks are children.
“This can only harm children’s physical and mental well-being; unless their basic need to be well nourished is met, we cannot expect children to concentrate at school or on other activities.”
To back up his call, the commissioner published a report ‘Living is more important than just surviving’, which sought children’s views on food insecurity in Scotland.
It highlighted that there was a lack of accurate data about the numbers of children experiencing food insecurity – that is when people do not have enough food to eat or are not certain that there will be enough food for them and their families.
Researchers, from Nourish Scotland and Home Start UK, also spoke with 32 children in four local authority areas who were said to have put forward ideas including making healthy food more affordable, redistributing money and supporting charitable solutions – though not all children felt that foodbanks were a fair solution the report claims.
Baillie added: “The greatest insight of this research, is of young children’s desire and ability to solve the challenges they see in the world around them, which raises a number of questions about the inclusion of children in public policy and decision making more generally.”
Pete Ritchie, executive director, of Nourish Scotland said: “A number of the solutions children suggested, were rooted in children’s rights - they all agreed that children have a right to food.
“However, we don’t have a clear idea of the scale of the challenge - there is currently no population wide monitoring of food insecurity in Scotland or the rest of the UK, though the exponential rise of foodbanks and other emergency food aid providers has highlighted a very real problem.
“The Scottish Government could include a child-specific measure of food insecurity in the child poverty bill.”
Shelagh Young, director of Scotland, Home-Start UK added: “The children in this report confirmed that a reliable supply of healthy food for every family is an essential aspect of making Scotland the best place to grow up.
“As one of them put it ‘When you are hungry all you can think about is food’. Home-Start volunteers work every day with families who demonstrate huge resourcefulness in the face of serious levels of need but we know that our help is too easily undermined by everyday material problems.”
