THE DISPATCH

CHILD POVERTY

Prime Minister under pressure after Scotland doubles payments to low-income children

Campaigners in Scotland are celebrating a hard-fought win after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon confirmed she would double the lifeline cash given to low-income families.

The Scottish Child Payment (SCP) is worth £10 a week to around 100,000 children and currently given to kids younger than six. It is due to be rolled out to under-16s by the end of next year.

But after intense pressure, the Holyrood government caved to activists’ calls to double the payments to £20 per week starting in April.

The move has put Westminster under the microscope. While the new payments will go some way to countering Boris Johnson’s £20-per-week Universal Credit cut made just weeks ago, families in the rest of the UK are still struggling to make ends meet after losing £1,040 from their annual incomes and receiving no such cash boost.

Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, said the doubled SCP would “loosen the grip of poverty on the lives of thousands of children”.

“We are delighted that the Scottish Government has listened and acted.”

Sturgeon’s announcement at the SNP conference was the “right and just thing to do, and will help keep people afloat amid the rising tide of poverty that’s sweeping across the country”, Kelly added.

It is a “real lifeline” for families in Scotland who are “facing a perfect storm of financial insecurity as the UK cut to Universal Credit bites, energy prices soar and the wider costs of living rise”, said John Dickie, director of Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland.

“We know that behind these statistics lie tens of thousands