Cruel Westminster Austerity Felt Locally
The SNP has warned that damaging policies shared by both the Tory and Labour parties are cutting the incomes of thousands of working families.
It comes after new analysis revealed the number of children across Angus impacted by the Tory-imposed two child benefit cap.
The analysis, conducted by the SNP using the latest available data from the UK Government’s Department for Work and Pensions, found that 1,330 children in Angus are missing out on vital financial support due to the cap.
These findings come on the back of the Labour Party admitting it would keep the Tory two child cap – a policy which has pushed more than 20,000 children into poverty in Scotland. In the Scottish Parliament this week, the SNP backed a motion calling out cruel Westminster welfare policies – with Labour MSPs failing to oppose the two child policy.
In sharp contrast, the Scottish Government has lifted 90,000 children out of absolute poverty through policies such as the Scottish Child Payment, described as ‘game changing’ by anti-poverty organisations and charities. But the SNP stresses that its national mission to eradicate child poverty is a constant struggle against Westminster governments driving said poverty.
That so many children in struggling households across Angus are being deprived support, and at a time of such great need, is tragic and a shameful reflection on the UK Government.
GRAEME
But the fact that the so-called Labour ‘opposition’ would continue this deprivation is perhaps even more shameful.
Hundreds and hundreds of children and their families here in our Angus communities alone are being hurt by this cruel policy – families abandoned by the ever more rightward shifting Labour Party.
The Scottish Government can and does make it a national mission to end child poverty in Scotland, but it is clear why only so much can be done when this is forever at odds with poverty-creating policy and economic mismanagement emanating from Westminster.
