In the face of years of UK austerity, and welfare policies which penalise the poorest in society, the Scottish Government is investing to mitigate the worst impacts of Westminster rule.
In 2024/2025, the Scottish Government will spend over £600 million to tackle poverty and mitigate against callous Labour policies.
This includes fully mitigating Labour’s Bedroom Tax, and supporting over 300,000 children with the Scottish Child Payment .
What is the Scottish Government doing to protect Scots from harmful Westminster policies?
Best Start Grant and Best Start Foods – £39.4 million
The Best Start Grant scheme, alongside the Best Start Food scheme, help to support families to ensure every child has a good start in life. There is no equivalent in England.
Child Winter Heating Assistance – £8.7 million
A £200 payment to help families of a child on the highest rate care component of Disability Living Allowance for Children to heat their homes.
Mitigating Labour’s Bedroom Tax – £92.7 million
The Scottish Government fully mitigates the Bedroom Tax and Tory Benefit Cap through Discretionary Housing Payments, which have been in place since 2017.
Scottish Welfare Fund – £41 million
The Scottish Welfare Fund helps to lift the burden on hard-pressed families by providing grants for community care, or in the event of an emergency.
Scottish Child Payment – £457.3 million
This is the most ambitious child poverty reduction measure in the UK, reaching over 316,000 children and young people. This has been increased to £25 a week and was recently called the most significant single policy intervention to reduce child poverty anywhere in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall. In 2024/25, it will keep 100,000 children out of poverty in Scotland.
Despite limited powers and resources, the Scottish Government is investing to tackle poverty and stop the worst effects of Westminster rule from hitting our poorest families.
However it does not have to be this way.
While Labour believe the Scottish Government should mitigate against their own policies – the SNP believes that these punitive Westminster measures should be scrapped at source.
According to several anti-poverty groups, abolishing the two-child benefit cap on Universal Credit would lift over 300,000 children out of poverty across the UK. SNP MPs have been fighting for this to be lifted since it was brought in under David Cameron.
This week, one of the first acts of new Scottish Labour MPs was to vote against an SNP amendment which would have scrapped the callous two-child benefit cap.
The SNP will always act to build a fairer nation for everyone who lives in Scotland. We could do so much more by escaping the punitive policies of Westminster, and taking Scotland forward with independence.
