1 1 Introduction
1. The past decade has seen unprecedented investment
in policies aimed at reducing child poverty as well as the emergence
of a political consensus which regards the UK's rate of child
poverty as unacceptable in such a wealthy country. The Government
has established high profile and ambitious targets for the reduction
and eventual abolition of child poverty. Since 1997, rates of
child poverty have reduced significantly as a result of this action,
but there is some evidence to suggest that the rate of reduction
is now slowing. In March 1999, the then Prime Minister announced
a UK-wide target of eliminating child poverty by 2020, with interim
targets of reducing rates by a quarter by 2004-05 and by a half
in 2010-11. The Government failed to meet its national targets
of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2004-05
and 250,000 children are still living in poverty in Scotland today.
2. This Report on child poverty is the second
and final Report to emerge from our long-running inquiry into
Poverty in Scotland, which began gathering evidence in
December 2006. In December 2007, we published a general Report
on issues relating to the definition and measurement of poverty
and the effectiveness of Government policy.[1]
In that Report we stated:
In the course of the inquiry, the Committee received
considerable evidence on the subject of child poverty. Time and
again, we heard evidence that "In our supposedly meritocratic
society, the most reliable predictor of living in poverty is to
be born in poverty".[2]
The reduction of child poverty is the aim of high-profile Government
targets, whose success or failure will affect not only those currently
living in poverty, but generations to come. We have therefore
decided to produce a separate Report on this important subject.[3]
3. In this Report, we look in detail at factors crucial
to the success or failure of Government policy on child poverty,
including the extent to which work can offer families a route
out of poverty; the tax and benefits system; the availability
of childcare and the status of young people. Although this Report
focuses on child poverty in Scotland, it should be read
alongside our earlier, more general Report on poverty issues.
Many of the issues we raised and the conclusions we drew in that
Report are relevant to the fight against child poverty, for example,
the need for a coherent national strategy and the effectiveness
and consequences of the Government's focus on work as the main
route out of poverty.
4. Child poverty arises from the family circumstances
in which children live. In Scotland today, severe poverty is often
generational in nature, and poverty is handed down from parents
to children. We welcome the Government's recognition of the need
to tackle child poverty as a means of breaking this cycle. The
main means by which the Government can improve the lives of poor
children is through the context of their family—principally
their parents or guardians. However, the situation of young single
adults can also be considered relevant to the problem of child
poverty. This group comprises the parents of tomorrow and any
failure to raise income levels amongst this population may significantly
endanger the long-term sustainability of current reductions in
the levels of child poverty.
5. We have experienced some difficulty in the course
of this inquiry in obtaining poverty statistics disaggregated
for Scotland. In some cases, only UK-wide figures were available.
We urge Government and others to publish a breakdown of statistics
wherever possible.
1 Scottish Affairs Committee, Second Report of Session
2007-08, Poverty in Scotland, HC 128-I. The evidence gathered
during this inquiry was published in a separate volume as HC
128-II (2007-08). All references in this Report refer to that
volume unless otherwise specified Back
2
Ev 326 Back
3
HC 128-I (2007-08), pp 5-6 Back
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