Highlighting What Works
This week has been Challenge Poverty Week, an annual opportunity to raise our voices against poverty and unite with hundreds of organisations across Scotland in calling for a more just and equal society.
It is about speaking out against the injustice of so many households still struggling with poverty in 21st century Scotland, and about drawing attention to the causes of poverty – which in a country as wealthy as the UK is really a problem of bad policy.
People have endured the pain of austerity for far too long under successive Tory Westminster governments – and now the same approach is being continued under Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
But Challenge Poverty Week is also, critically, about highlighting what needs to change and what works.
This year, each day was observed with a focus on a particular theme – and the SNP has been raising awareness of how some of its key policies have been making a real difference to people here in Angus and right across Scotland.
Here are just some of the ways we are fighting poverty in Scotland:
Housing
Since coming to power in 2007, the SNP has introduced a number of measures to improve the availability of housing in Scotland – including the abolition of Margaret Thatcher’s Right to Buy scheme, ending fixed-term private lets, and improving tenants’ rights.
The SNP Government has also overseen the construction of 133,409 social and affordable homes across Scotland, since 2007, with 1,485 built in Angus.
First Minister John Swinney recently reaffirmed the SNP’s commitment to improving access to affordable housing, by announcing a £600 million investment in the sector this year – including £80 million over two years to bring empty properties back into use.
Transport
The SNP government’s policy of free bus travel for under 22s, over 60s and disabled people is helping to tackle poverty here in Angus and across Scotland.
Scotland has the most generous concessionary fare scheme in the UK, with more than 2.3 million people eligible for free bus travel. The SNP Scottish Government’s firm commitment to bus travel continues with almost £430 million in funding for concessionary travel planned for 2024-25.
Recent figures show that young people across Scotland have now made over 150 million journeys using the Free Bus Travel Scheme since it was introduced by the SNP in 2022.
Adequate Incomes
Scotland’s devolved social security system developed in recent years – one rooted in dignity, fairness and respect – has been having a transformative impact.
Since the devolution of some areas of welfare, the SNP Scottish Government has set up Social Security Scotland with the intention of correcting the flaws in the approach taken to date by the UK Government’s Department of Work & Pensions (DWP).
Responsibility for many benefits has been transferred across, improving the experience of those claiming support and delivering some new benefits unique to Scotland.
Under the SNP, people across can access the following:
- The Scottish Child Payment, worth £26.70 per week to eligible children – which is keeping 60,000 children out of poverty this year.
- Another 13 payments from Social Security Scotland, seven of which are unique to Scotland – including five family payments, disability benefits, carers benefits, heating benefits and others.
- The most generous childcare package in the UK.
- Making Scotland a Fair Work Nation by 2025.
Meanwhile the Scottish Government is continuing work on a Minimum Income Guarantee for all Scots through fair paid work, strong public services and benefits.
Food
One particular Social Security Scotland payment that is making a real difference in alleviating food poverty in Angus and across Scotland is the Best Start Foods payment.
Locally, £1,113,422 worth of payments have been issued since 2019.
The payment is made to a pre-paid card every four weeks to eligible pregnant women, their partners or families, to help pay for healthy food until their child is 3 years old – ensuring that all children in Scotland can have the best start in life.
This cash-first approach, which puts money directly into the pockets of young families, has been commended by the Trussell Trust, the UK’s leading foodbank charity, who argue that direct cash payments are the most dignified and sustainable way to support people struggling to afford food.
Over £57 million worth of Best Start Foods payments have been issued across Scotland as a whole since 2019.
Communities & Volunteers
Local community groups and volunteers across the county undertake a crucial role in supporting those who need it most.
A standout example of this in Angus is the Monifieth & District Community Fridge, to which Graeme paid a visit in the summer.
A community fridge is a space that brings people together to share food, meet up, learn new skills and prevent fresh food from going to waste. They’re open to all and anyone can share or take food, including surplus from supermarkets, local food businesses, producers, households and gardens.
Fridges are run by community groups in shared spaces such as schools, community centres and shops. There are over 600 fridges across the UK (and counting).
The SNP Government has been keen to support community volunteering more widely, launching Scotland’s Volunteering Action Plan in 2022. The plan aims to create an environment where everyone can volunteer, more often, and throughout their lives, with a specific focus on tackling inequality within volunteering.
Actions identified in the Volunteering Action Plan include:
- Increasing public awareness of volunteering and to tackle stereotypes around what it is and who volunteers
- Engaging community assets, organisations, and local leadership to maximise the contribution of volunteers
- Increasing the opportunities available to volunteer: widening the breadth of opportunities and increasing access for under-represented groups
- Promoting the ‘value’ of volunteering more widely
- Building knowledge and skills within inclusive volunteering, reducing bureaucracy, and widening standards of practice
A Fairer Scotland is Possible
These examples are just some of the ways that the SNP Scottish Government is proving that evidence-based policy interventions can and do reduce poverty, improving the quality of life of people in Angus and all over Scotland.
Eradicating child poverty is the Scottish Government’s single greatest priority.
The Prime Minister has been clear that the UK Budget, to be delivered later this month, will be painful, and the reality is that the UK’s finances will inevitably affect the funding available to us here in Scotland. Their decisions mean tough decisions ahead for Scotland.
Yet despite this the Scottish Government will continue to prioritise action to eradicate child poverty. It already has a strong track record of improving lives in challenging circumstances, and will continue focusing on clear priorities that make the biggest difference.
