Meeting Scotland's child poverty reduction targets

This project looks at the relative effectiveness of childcare, employability programmes and social security levers in achieving the child poverty reduction targets

Background

Around 1 in 4 children in Scotland live in relative poverty. This means they live in a household with an income 60% below the UK median income after housing costs have been deducted.

The Scottish Government have stated their aim to reduce significantly the incidence of child poverty. The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 includes a target to reduce relative child poverty to 10% by 2030/31. The baseline child poverty level is estimated to be 25% in 2020 compared to 24% in the most recent period (2017- 20).

Meeting the target would represent an unprecedented reduction in child poverty to levels not seen in Scotland since before the current statistical series began in the early 1990s.

Outcomes

This project looks at the relative effectiveness of childcare, employability programmes and social security levers in achieving the child poverty reduction targets.

By analysing variations of these types of policies, and different combinations, this analysis illustrates the scale of the impact on poverty and the associated costs and benefits of different options.