Memorandum submitted CHILDREN 1ST
ABOUT CHILDREN 1ST
Since 1889, CHILDREN 1ST, formerly the Royal
Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children, has been working
to give every child in Scotland a safe and secure childhood. The
NSPCC, our sister charity, also emerged at this time and now operates
in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although separate organisations,
we work together to improve the lives of children and families
throughout the UK.
Initially set up to rescue children living rough
and begging on the streets, the RSSPCC became better known for
investigating child abuse and neglect. In the past the Society's
Inspectors, often referred to as the "Cruelty Man",
investigated cases of abuse and neglect reported by the general
public. In 1968 new legislation gave responsibility for investigating
child abuse to local authority social work departments. As a result,
the role of RSSPCC changed allowing the organisation to concentrate
upon prevention of child abuse and neglect by intervening to help
families at an earlier stage. It was some years before the charity
changed its name to reflect this change in role, adopting the
campaigning name CHILDREN 1ST in 1995.
Today, CHILDREN 1ST works across Scotland to
support families under stress, protect children from harm and
neglect, help them recover from abuse and promote children's rights
and interests. We provide 40 services in 23 local authority areas
as well as five national services including ParentLine Scotland
which is the free, national telephone helpline for parents and
carers. CHILDREN 1ST services work with many families who live
in poverty, often working to minimise the effects of poverty on
their children. For more information about how we work to keep
children safe in Scotland, visit www.children1st.org.uk
CHILD POVERTY
IN SCOTLAND
Whilst Scottish society has changed in many
ways since the RSSPCC first began 120 years ago, vulnerable children
living in poverty in Scotland remains a shameful reality. One
in four children in Scotland still live in poverty (less than
60% of median income), many of these children living in severe
and persistent poverty. Children still suffer from a lack of nutrition,
from over-crowding, from cold housing and from a lack of warm
clothes. Two-fifths of those who live in poverty live in whole
"deprived areas".[25]
As found in the earlier Scottish Affairs Committee
inquiry, the damaging impact of poverty on children is lifelong
and affects every area of their lives. Poverty affects children's
access to education. They are less able to take part in extracurricular
activities, achieve lower grades in exams, leave school earlier
and are less likely to go on to study at college or university.
Poverty means that these children experience increased ill-health
such as heart disease and cancer, and die younger. These children
are more likely to end up in care, and in prison. Poverty leads
to children's aspirations being lower, and they will experience
more unemployment and earn less throughout their lifetimes. Poverty
means children and young people not having access to social activities
and pleasures that most of us take for granted. It means these
children having more mental health problems, struggling to find
happiness during an often stressful childhood.
Poverty in Scotland therefore remains one of
the most pressing problems facing children and families, and wider
society. This paper focuses particularly on child poverty because
obviously this is our organisation's primary concern. However
we also focus on child poverty because, as noted in the Scottish
Affairs Committee report, poor children are more likely to become
poor adults and poor pensioners. A life of poverty often begins
in childhood, and childhood itself is damaged by its impact. CHILDREN
1ST welcomes the Scottish Affairs Committee's second inquiry into
this important issue and we urge them to press for change in the
following important areas of reserved policy:
1. SUPPORT UNIVERSAL
PROVISION
CHILDREN 1ST strongly believes that one of the
best ways to prevent poverty is to provide universal services
and support. Services are often targeted at the most needy for
good reason—however, these services can also miss helping
those who fall just outside of these targeted criteria, and who
are just managing to make ends meet. Therefore, comprehensive
universal services and support, as well as targeted provision,
is needed.
One of the best examples of universal provision
in the UK that works well for families is child benefit. This
benefit recognises that all families have extra costs when bringing
up a child. Research estimates these costs to be on average £140,398
from birth until the child reaches 21 years old.[26]
By providing universal child benefit, many families are helped
to cope with these extra costs.
However, we encourage the Committee to consider
the benefits of giving every child in a family the same level
of child benefit support. There are few "economies of scale"
when providing for children, and therefore subsequent children
still mean considerable additional cost for parents. It is also
important to note that children in larger families run a higher
risk of living in poverty. Recent research found that 50% of families
with four or more children lived in poverty, compared to 23% of
one-child families. At February 2005, around 4.2% of families
claiming Child Benefit had four or more children, but the figure
was 7.6% for families on key benefits.[27]
Indeed, the UK poverty rate in large families is amongst the highest
in the OECD.[28]
CHILDREN 1ST therefore suggests that the Committee recommends
that child benefit be equal for all children, no matter how many
siblings they have.
2. WORK SHOULD
NOT BE
THE ONLY
ROUTE OUT
OF POVERTY
CHILDREN 1ST recognises that very often, well-paid
employment is a valuable route out of poverty for families. However,
we also recognise that many parents, both in couples and lone
parents, choose not to work in order to provide care for their
children full-time. We believe that this is a legitimate choice
to make, and one that should not be penalised by the government.
This was supported in the previous Scottish Affairs Committee
report where the Committee agreed that child care is work, and
that employment is only one route out of poverty for lone parents.
We are concerned that the current welfare reform
proposals ignore this issue, and instead will mean that lone parents
are forced into working in order to have an adequate standard
of living for their children. The proposals will require lone
parents who have been on benefits for a year to have six monthly
work-focused interviews, as opposed to the current situation where
this is only required when the youngest child reaches 11 years
old.
Instead of these proposals focused on compulsion
to work, government policy and the upcoming welfare reform should
ensure that all parents, including lone parents, who choose to
care for their school-age child(ren) themselves are not financially
worse-off. They should not be financially penalised for making
this legitimate choice. We believe that this reflects society's
collective investment in children, regardless of their home situation.
3. MORE MONEY
ADVICE FOR
PARENTS
4% of calls to ParentLine Scotland, run by CHILDREN
1ST, are about welfare benefits. Many of these callers are experiencing
considerable stress because of financial difficulties, including
a particularly high proportion of lone parents. Many of these
parents are living in poverty, and their calls therefore reflect
a complex set of negative pressures in their lives that contribute
to their stress, and at times, depression and other mental health
problems. CHILDREN 1ST is therefore very aware of the ongoing
need for good quality, independent money and benefits advice services.
We note that the Committee recommended money advice services for
Scotland's poorest communities as well as a national telephone
money advice service, and we question what steps have been made
towards this.
4. IMPROVE TAKE-UP
OF BENEFITS
ENTITLEMENT
Many people living in poverty are not claiming
the benefits that they are entitled to. For example, up to 80,000
lone parents, and between 10,000 and 30,000 couples with children,
did not take up their full entitlement to income support in 2003/04
(DWP figures). Many people need reassurance that certain benefits
are theirs as of right and they need on-going support to make
successful claims. Long, complicated forms and a confusing claims
process are also big barriers to claiming. The rules and conditions
of the benefits system are extremely complex, meaning that noone
can properly understand their entitlement without expert help.
We encourage the Committee to recommend that
more needs done to encourage the full take-up of benefit entitlement
as a vital way to ensure that the welfare system works effectively
in helping families out of poverty. More investment is needed
in independent advice projects such as those provided by One Parent
Families Scotland and the Citizens Advice Bureau to ensure that
families access the help that they are entitled to.
5. EQUAL MINIMUM
WAGE FOR
YOUNG WORKERS
The minimum wage for 18-21 year olds is currently
£4.45 per hour, compared to £5.35 per hour for those
of 22 years old and over. The justification for this difference
is that the lesser wage is a "development" wage that
recognises that these employees are less experienced. However,
we question this rationale as employees of all ages can be new
to certain types of jobs. We would suggest that it is discriminatory
to pay a younger person less for doing the same job as someone
older. In addition, many 16-21 year olds have left school and
many will be supporting children. We therefore urge the Committee
to recommend that this age discrepancy in the minimum wage is
changed.
CONCLUSION
CHILDREN 1ST welcomes the UK government's target
to end child poverty by 2020. However, we are concerned that unless
action is taken to address the above issues, children will continue
to experience a life of poverty. Poverty is very often generational—it
is important that the government does all that it can to lift
this generation out of poverty to bring positive consequences
for many years to come.
Children 1st
October 2006
25 Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Monitoring Poverty
and Social Inclusion in Scotland, 2002. Back
26
Liverpool Victoria Friendly Society, 2003. Back
27
DWP, Client Group Analysis, February 2005. Back
28
Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Child poverty in large families,
June 2006. Back
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