The Scottish Government has announced its policy plans for 2024-25, with first minister John Swinney saying the eradication of child poverty was “first and foremost” in his government’s priorities.
In a post to its official Facebook account on 2 September, the SNP promoted the government’s achievements in reducing child poverty, including a claim about the impact of an existing policy, the Scottish child payment.
The SNP introduced the Scottish child payment – which has already lifted more than 100,000 kids out of poverty.
CLAIM: “The SNP introduced the Scottish child payment – which has already lifted more than 100,000 kids out of poverty.” – SNP
Ferret Fact Service looked at this claim and found it False.
Evidence
The Scottish child payment is a benefit paid by the Scottish Government to families with children under 16 who are receiving certain other benefits or payments.
It was introduced in 2021 as part of the Scottish Government’s plans to reduce child poverty and has been increased to £26.70 per week for every child in a qualifying household.
The SNP’s claim that the policy had “already lifted” or “taken” more than 100,000 kids out of poverty has been made several times by the party and its representatives on social media and in the UK parliament
The figure of 100,000 children actually comes from modelling published by the Scottish Government in February.
It looked at the potential impact of various government policies in reducing child poverty in the future, not the level of success the policies have already achieved.
The modelling report states “Scottish Government policies will keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty and 70,000 children out of absolute poverty in 2024-25, with the respective child poverty rates 10 percentage points and seven percentage points lower than they would have been without these policies.”
Relative poverty is the most commonly used way to define poverty in the UK and refers to children in households who earn less than 60 per cent of the middle income each year. A household is in absolute poverty when its income is below 60 per cent of the UK’s middle income in 2010-11, adjusted for inflation.
The prediction of 100,000 children being kept out of relative poverty refers to a selection of policies, including the child payment alongside other changes such as an uplift in Universal Credit for families. The modelling compares the projected difference between all of these government policies being in place and a scenario where none of the changes were made.
The report also states that the child payment alone was projected to impact the relative child poverty rate by six percentage points in 2024-25, which would keep an estimated 60,000 out of relative poverty, not 100,000. It goes on to say that the modelling in the report “particularly projections” of annual poverty rates should be treated with caution.
In response to a request for evidence, the SNP told Ferret Fact Service the claim in the Facebook post was an error, and noted the modelling of 60,000 children projected to be kept out of poverty in 2024-25. The SNP has now deleted the Facebook post and a similar recent X post but has kept up a post making the same claim from August.
The latest statistics available for child poverty in Scotland showed an estimated 24 per cent of children (240,000 children each year) were living in relative poverty between 2020 to 2023. In the previous period covering 2019 to 2022, 250,000 children were in relative poverty. This is a decrease of approximately 10,000. Relative child poverty rates have remained fairly stable since the SNP entered power in 2007.
Ferret Fact Service verdict: False
The Scottish child payment has not “already lifted more than 100,000 kids out of poverty” as claimed by the SNP. The statistics relate to predictions of what could happen in 2024-25 due to a range of Scottish Government measures including the child payment.
Ferret Fact Service (FFS) is a non-partisan fact checker, and signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers’ code of principles.
All the sources used in our checks are publicly available and the FFS fact-checking methodology can be viewed here.
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Main image: Scottish Government
The booserism of the Scottish child payment is astonishing. The maximum payment was raised to £26.70 last year because child benefit in England & Wales had been raised to £26.70. They are exactly the same in elegibility and payments. The only difference is that the Holyrood government thinks they are doing something exraordinary.