SNP Calls on UK Government to Match Support UK-wide
On the second anniversary of the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment, the SNP is challenging the Westminster Tory Government to follow its lead by matching the £440 million commitment to combating child poverty.
The payment was first opened on February 14, 2021, to eligible families with children under six. Initially, the payment was £10 per week per child.
This was doubled to £20 in April 2022, before being rolled out to families with children under 16 years old in November last year and increased again to £25 per week per eligible child.
The most ambitious anti-poverty measure anywhere in the UK, the Scottish Child Payment has been labelled “game-changing” by anti-poverty campaigners.
– Graeme
The Scottish Child Payment is rightly described as a game-changer in the fight against child poverty, representing close to a half-billion-pound annual boost to low-income families.
The contrast with the actions of Scotland’s other government at Westminster, responsible for over a decade of austerity and an out-of-control cost-of-living crisis, is absolutely stark.
In just two years, the Scottish Government has brought in, expanded fully and continually uprated the Scottish Child Payment, and yet Tory decisions at the UK level continue to drag hard up families into poverty – a political choice.
If we are to tackle child poverty without being held back by another administration that is actually exacerbating the problem, Scotland needs the full powers of a normal, independent country.
