News: Parliament can ensure child poverty commitments aren’t watered down

The Scottish Government says it is to review the targets used to define child poverty in Scotland.

The Poverty Alliance has joined Aberlour, the Child Poverty Action Group, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, One Parent Families Scotland, Save the Children, and Trussell Trust, to issue a joint statement.

“It is welcome that the Scottish Government is repeating its commitment to eradicating child poverty, but ministers cannot ignore that part of the reason why they are planning to review the targets at this point is that they have not taken enough action thus far to meet them.

“Any review of the targets needs to be based on the goal of strengthening them to maintain their ambition and urgency.

“Removing any measurement of income from child poverty reduction targets would be like having a speedometer in your car that only told you the temperature.

“Whatever the Scottish Government proposes as changes to the targets, the parliament will have to be very sure that these do not water down the responsibility of the government to take action.

“We will of course work with the government and parliament as part of this review, but we will do so cautiously and with a determined focus on what families need.”