Slacking off on poverty fight?

from the BBC

By John Knox
Political reporter, BBC Scotland

Has the fight against poverty stalled in Scotland?

When Labour took office in 1999, Scotland had the worst levels of child and pensioner poverty in the EU.

There has been been significant progress since then but now it looks like the government will struggle to meet its target of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020.

The House of Commons Scottish Affairs committee is currently carrying out an inquiry into how the fight against poverty is going.

It's been taking evidence since May and is due to report by the end of the year. It's expected to call for the re-launch of the campaign against poverty and for a more co-ordinated and targeted approach.

According to the Child Poverty Action Group, there are 250,000 children in Scotland living in poverty.

That's 24% of all children. Altogether there are 980,000 people living in poverty - 20% of the population.

Poverty is defined as living in a household where the income is less than 605 of the national average, i.e. £108 a week (after housing costs, which are usually met by the benefit system) for a single person, £223 a week for a single parent with two children and £301 a week for a couple with two children.

John Dickie, of the Child Poverty Action Group, says: "Half of children living in poverty are living in households where an adult is working, so getting a job in itself is not necessarily enough.

"We need an extra £4 billion a year invested through the tax and benefit system in the UK just to get the government back on track to fulfil its promise of eradicating child poverty by 2020."

Crossing boundaries

Labour did reach its interim target on child poverty in 2005 but there are serious doubts that it can reach its 2010 target without major changes to the system. Hence the MPs inquiry.

It's taken evidence in Glasgow, the Highlands, Dundee and Edinburgh.

In Edinburgh, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) told the committee that the fight against poverty needs to be much more co-ordinated.

"We need a tripartite solution," said Councillor Harry McGuigan.

"The Westminster government, the Scottish government and local government need to work together."

In particular, the councillors want direct access to the department of work and pensions in London to fine tune the tax and benefit system, so that it can work with the local social work departments, the education departments and the heath service to meet the needs of families on the breadline.

It's a controversial suggestion, in these times of nationalist government in Edinburgh.

The communities minister Stewart Maxwell said on his way into the committee: "I don't want to blame anybody. I'm here to give MPs a clear view of our priorities but also to point out that most of the levers for tackling poverty remain at Westminster."

It was the first time an SNP minister had given evidence to a Westminster committee, a sign that poverty crosses many boundaries.

It's also the cause of much government expense......on health, unemployment benefit, crime.

That's why John Dickie sees expenditure on the war against poverty as "an investment" to cut more expenditure later.

Underlying issues

He says it's important to dismiss the myth that poverty is some sort of individual failure.

"There's overwhelming evidence that poverty is caused by underlying issues such as low pay, insecurity of employment, family unfriendly practices at work, ill health, disability, caring responsibilities."

So, plenty of sub-targets there on the way to achieving the overall target of ending poverty in Britain by 2020.

The chairman of the Scottish Affairs committee, Glasgow Labour MP Mohammed Sarwar, is determined his committee's report next month will reinvigorate the battle against poverty.

"Poverty is a very very serious issue for everyone in Scotland, and in Britain as a whole," he said. "We can't afford to abandon this noble cause."