Child poverty – the Scottish government's delivery plan
How the Scottish Government can reduce child poverty
University of Strathclyde (Fraser of Allander Institute)
January 2022
1 in 4 children in Scotland live in relative poverty. The Scottish Government have set a target of reducing this to no more than 10% by 2030/31.
This project aimed to inform the development of the next Scottish Government child poverty delivery plan before its delivery in March 2022.
The work looks at combinations of policies that will meet the targets and the consequences of these policies on the wider economy. The modelling has produced three policy 'packages' for reducing child poverty, each with a different motivation. The work also incorporates the views of people with lived experience of poverty directly into the work to inform the assumptions on which the modelling is based.
The total cost of the policy packages modelled ranges from £4 billion to £7 billion but the report finds that investing this money would have positive economic benefits through boosting demand for goods and services and increasing the size of the workforce.
