SNP dump ‘buzz words’ in battle against poverty

from The Sunday Hearld

By Paul Hutcheon
Plan to help the low paid, but not hit high earners

SNP MINISTERS are to ditch New Labour's anti-poverty buzz words as part of their approach to boosting the incomes of low-paid Scots. The government will suggest dropping phrases such as "social justice" and "material disadvantage" in favour of "solidarity" and "fairness".

It will also stress that poverty cannot be tackled by simply reducing the income of people at the top end of society.

The Nationalist plan will become clear on Thursday when deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon publishes a consultation on addressing poverty.

Nearly 900,000 Scots are estimated to live in relative poverty - defined as a person's household income being less than 60% of the UK median income.

The Sunday Herald can reveal the consultation will beef up the UK government's desire to end child poverty by 2020 with two new targets.

The first, which the SNP hopes will be met by 2017, is to "increase overall income and the proportion of income earned by the three lowest-income deciles as a group by 2017".

Ministers also want to "narrow the gap in economic activity between Scotland's best and worst-performing regions".

But, in an attempt to put distance between itself and the UK government, the consultation states a new language should be used for talking about poverty.

"The language used can be complex and confusing. Social justice, social inclusion, relative and absolute poverty, income inequality, Closing The Opportunity Gap, Opportunity For All and material disadvantage have all been in common use in recent years.

"This discussion document is deliberately couched in the terminology used by the new Scottish government - a fairer Scotland, the solidarity and cohesion targets and an ambition to tackle poverty and we will be seeking views during the consultation process on whether you agree that this change is helpful."

The 10-year plan on raising the incomes of the poor, according to the document, will be a mixture of prevention, such as tackling worklessness, and alleviation.

The latter approach, ministers hope, will be aided by the introduction of a local income tax to replace council tax, as well as deepening the provision of free personal care and discounted travel.

In a similar vein, the plan expresses a wish to develop the concept of a "living wage" for everyone in Scotland. The consultation will also stress the role of local authorities and the voluntary sector in developing anti-poverty initiatives.

However, the document makes clear the poverty strategy will not be based on taxing the rich: "Income inequality must be tackled by raising the income of the lowest earners without lowering the income of the highest earners."

It also makes clear the difficulties involved in reconciling economic growth - the SNP government's top priority - with narrowing the gap between rich and poor.

A Scottish government spokesman said: "Next week, the Scottish government will launch a discussion paper on tackling poverty, inequality and deprivation in Scotland. The discussion will seek the widest possible range of views, and will see the Poverty Alliance and Cosla working in a strengthened partnership with the Scottish government to engage in a public dialogue on how these aspects of the government economic strategy can be taken forward."