Aberlour Children's Charity: Treat child poverty like Covid
The devastating impact of poverty in Scotland demands the same emergency response as Covid, the country’s biggest children’s charity warns today.
Aberlour insists the escalating crisis trapping young Scots in poverty requires the same urgent support offered to families during the pandemic.
One in four children now live in poverty but, the charity warns, the figure is far higher in Scotland’s poorest postcodes where half of all children may be growing up in families struggling to stay afloat.
SallyAnn Kelly, Aberlour chief executive, said the number of young lives blighted by poverty now demands the same response that delivered urgent financial support for families as Britain locked down.
She said:
No one could ever underestimate the suffering and loss inflicted by Covid but the lives and life chances of thousands of children are being as badly impacted by poverty as the pandemic.
“We need the same ambition, determination and urgency around poverty as we had during lockdown in terms of supporting families and protecting the lives of children.
“The swift and effective action taken then is needed now and our governments need to step up.
Kelly said the difference in the response to poverty is because decision-makers are not directly affected as they were by the pandemic.
She said:
The emergency support for families during Covid would have been thought impossible just a few weeks earlier.
“The reason that vital assistance was put in place with such speed was because politicians and policy-makers were just as affected as everyone else.
“There was no sense that Covid was something happening to other people and that is why the response to poverty is so different.
“The experience of living in poverty is so far from decision-makers’ lives that they have no understanding of it.
“They believe poverty is something that happens to other people, to poor people.
Kelly said the distance between politicians and poverty has sabotaged effective action.
She said:
It’s about what commentators call proximity and, right now, our decision makers seem far, far away from families in poverty.
“The issues faced by those families do not impact on politicians’ day to day lives and so they are not so invested in addressing them. That was not the case during Covid.
“It seems like policy-makers have no real understanding of the daily challenges facing families, of getting food on the table, getting kids to school, paying for clothes, staying warm and all the rest.
“If that awareness was there, we would have seen less talk and far more action.
“Politicians would believe us when we say the safety net meant to catch any of us if we fall is in tatters.
“Far too many families are plunging right through.
Aberlour has urged the Scottish Government to increase the Scottish Child Payment and for UK ministers to scrap the two-child benefit cap because, Kelly said, giving more financial support for families in poverty is the simplest and most effective response to the unfolding crisis.
She spoke out as Aberlour launches its Poverty Relief fundraising campaign with every pound donated being delivered to families in the most extreme hardship through its Urgent Assistance Fund.
Kelly said:
“The same urgent assistance happened during the pandemic, of course, and happened with unprecedented speed.
“The difference was the middle classes were trusted so if you were working but furloughed, for example, you would be supported financially because the government trusted you to do the right thing by your family.
“Families living in poverty deserve that same trust now.”
She added:
“There is still this notion of the deserving poor and the undeserving poor.
“Nobody questioned if people were deserving or undeserving during the pandemic.
“During Covid, there was an absolute determination to protect everyone and the will to put measures in place urgently.
“We need that same urgency and determination to help families in poverty right now.”
Aberlour has welcomed a number of initiatives aimed at easing the crisis, including the Scottish Child Payment and the UK government’s determination to improve the pay and conditions of workers.
However, Kelly said:
We welcome all of that but it takes time and children do not have that time.
“They are suffering right now and they need action right now.
“There must be emergency relief for families, even if only on a temporary basis, until these promised changes take effect.
“That kind of temporary, emergency support is exactly what happened during Covid and is exactly what is needed now.
This article was written for the Daily Record and published on Monday 18th November 2024.