The real reason 25% of Scottish children are allowed to live in poverty

A quarter of the children in Scotland, one of the richest countries in the world, don’t have enough to feed or clothe themselves, pay for other essentials, or treat themselves now and again to things many of the rest of us take for granted.

That 1/4 figure was shared this week in a Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) report into the UK’s social security system, and how it contributes to the hardships faced by so many people across Scotland. It builds on the charity’s report last year which revealed how the UK jobs market perpetuates existing levels of poverty. More than 20% of all Scots live in poverty.

The JRF researchers found:

·         95% of lone parents rely on benefits as part of their income, as do 83% of households with three or more children, and 62% of families where someone has a disability

·         the two-child benefit cap contributes to a high rate of poverty among families with three or more children

·         children and working-age adults in households where someone has a disability are more than three times more likely to be in poverty and go without essentials such as a warm home or winter coat

·         some 54% of families from a minority ethnic background live in poverty, but only 38% receive social security.

As shameful as these figures are, the 1/4 statistic isn’t new. In fact, it’s pretty old – because nothing much has changed over the decades, despite years of political promises that economic growth is the key to tackling poverty.

Whatever the make-up of the administration in power, in Scotland or at UK level or beyond, you’ll more than likely have heard them promise that they’ve got your back, especially if you’re a “hardworking family”, and that the answer is growth, growth and more economic growth. It’s the answer to practically everything, apparently.

Nine days after being sworn in as Scotland’s first minister, John Swinney did it, in a speech to ‘business leaders’ at the Barclays bank campus in Glasgow on 17 May, saying his key policy objective is eradicating child poverty, “a curse in a 21st-century, advanced western society”.

“Let me make it absolutely crystal clear, there is no conflict in my mind, or in the policies of my government, between eradicating child poverty and boosting economic growth,” he continued.

Really??

Mr Swinney’s party ­has held power in the Scottish Government since 2007, and has described Scotland as having “one of the strongest economies in the world, with advantages and resources few nations can match”.

To make us even more joyful, we’ve been told that growth in Scotland’s gross domestic product (GDP) per head between 2010 and 2015 was above the UK average; that Scotland has the highest salary levels in the UK, with the exclusion of London and the south-east of England; and that between 2009 and 2019, Scottish median full-time gross annual pay increased by 21%, citing the Office of National Statistics.

So we’ve had steady economic growth for the past 15 years (the coronavirus pandemic aside), “advantages and resources” unavailable to most, and ‘good’ headline GDP per capita figures – yet little progress made on key social indicators over decades.

How can this be in one of the “strongest economies in the world”?

How can it be that people in Scotland’s most deprived areas/households will live an average of 24 fewer healthy years than those living in Scotland’s least deprived households/areas, according to the Accounts Commission.

How can it be that millions of Scots are struggling to pay essential bills?

It could be because economic growth as measured by GDP was never designed as a yardstick of a society’s success or otherwise. It only really measures financial flows (it’s the same in GDP terms whether you spend £10 billion to build affordable, quality social housing or on bagging yourself a gold-plated SUV with diamond-inlaid wheel trims, but one might just possibly be better than the other).

GDP growth is, however, constantly touted as a proxy for societal success – most often by those with money and power,  because they seem to be profiting very nicely from the status quo, thanks very much.

In fact, growth-focused neoliberal economic policies are strongly linked to Scotland’s poor health, poverty and mortality indicators over the past 30 years, earning it the title of “the sick man of Europe”.

These indicators have worsened due to the ‘austerity agenda’ of reduced public spending, tax rises, and the privatisation of public services and/or the responsibility for care being transferred to individuals that has been UK government policy since 2010, and which continues to this day.

According to researchers from the Glasgow Centre for Population Health, life expectancy in Scotland has only been relatively low since around 1950, and with a subsequent dip three decades later.

“From 1980, life expectancy in Scotland … displays a further relative faltering,” they say. “It has been suggested that Scotland suffered disproportionately from the adoption of neoliberalism across the nations of the UK, and [our] evidence supports this.”

In another analysis of UK poverty published in January, the JRF reports: “Before 1979, levels of poverty had been broadly flat at around 14%. In the 1980s, under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher, there was then an unprecedented rise in poverty even at a time of high income growth, due to very unequal income growth over this period. This has not been reversed, meaning current levels of poverty are around 50% higher than they were in the 1970s.

“The overall level of poverty has barely moved since Conservative-led governments took power in 2010. Poverty last fell consistently during the first half of the last Labour administration (between 1999/2000 and 2004/05), but then rose in the second half of their time in power.”

The child poverty rates for the UK are Scotland (24%), England (31%) and Wales (28%), with Northern Ireland on 22%. “This is likely to be due, at least in part, to the Scottish Child Payment,” adds the JRF. “This highlights the effect benefits can have in reducing poverty.”

Yet the figures remain stubbornly high – a curse indeed. The hollowing-out of societal safety nets and the resultant negative effect of shocks such as coronavirus are linked to the precarity of neoliberal economies’ focus on elite capital accumulation.

That elite accumulation is accelerating, and is founded on business-as-usual’s fundamental exploitation of people and resources, the inequality this relies on and perpetuates, and the resultant environmental degradation – with the most disadvantaged citizens suffering most whether ‘the system’ is paused or maintained.

As the JRF puts it: “Pleas from both [Scottish and UK] governments for patience while economic growth is built ignore three fundamental points.

“First, that people are going without essentials today. This is a stain on the conscience of one of the wealthiest nations in the world. Second, that economic growth in and of itself will not reduce poverty; government decisions to support people will – including, crucially, in the redistributive power of social security. Third, that economic growth built on economic insecurity is less sustainable in the long term as it is built on unequal foundations that create the inequalities, poverty and subsequent pressure on workforces and public services that we see today.”

Winter is on its way, striking fear into the hearts of the thousands of families forced to choose between ‘heating and eating’. More than nine million UK citizens are now vulnerable to reliance on food banks – up more than one million on five years ago. And home energy costs remain at near record levels, with changes to the winter fuel payment meaning more than 10 million pensioners will not receive the money this winter.

But Scotland has “resources few nations can match”! The trouble is, its fossil fuel resources – how most of us heat our homes and cook our food – are at the mercy of international energy markets and profit-driven corporations. And fossil fuels, of course, cause planet-wrecking climate breakdown.

But hey, higher home energy prices mean higher profits and – bingo! – more GDP growth. Which must be good, right, because we’re repeatedly told by those in charge it’s the only game in town. Yet although they might sugar the pill by calling it sustainable growth, inclusive growth or green growth etc etc, few of us should feel secure it will deliver those tantalisingly promised societal benefits.

So instead of just banging on about growth and looking the other way, one thing politicians could do to improve the lives of all of Scotland’s citizens – especially the most disadvantaged – is sign, and deliver on, the Warm This Winter pledge. It’s a campaign with four main asks:

·         emergency financial support for those struggling to meet their basic needs

·         help to upgrade homes to decent insulation and fuel-efficiency standards

·         access to cheap renewable energy

·         a swift and just transition away from expensive and climate-wrecking fossil fuels

Parents for Future Scotland supports parents, families and individuals to speak to their local representatives. Contact us at [email protected] to take action.

For more information see https://www.warmthiswinter.org.uk/