Scottish Parliament – Jan. 7, 2025 – 2

S6M-16003.3: As an amendment to motion S6M-16003 in the name of John Swinney (Tackling Child Poverty and Inequality Through the Scottish Budget), leave out from first "notes" to end and insert "agrees that child poverty should be a national mission for the Scottish Government and more widely across the Parliament, but deeply regrets that, after almost 18 years of a Scottish National Party (SNP) administration, there are 30,000 more children in poverty;

acknowledges that child poverty rates across the UK have risen under the economic mismanagement of the previous UK Conservative administration;

recognises that Scotland has its own legally binding child poverty reduction targets, which the SNP administration is likely to miss, despite successive First Ministers declaring action on child poverty to be a priority;

acknowledges an additional £5 billion of investment in Scotland as a result of the UK Labour administration’s Budget;

regrets that the SNP administration has had to use its draft Budget for 2025-26 to correct many of the mistakes that it made in its Budget for 2024-25;

is deeply concerned by the Scottish Government’s decision to cut measures that act as barriers to poverty;

agrees that there is a need to take a multi-faceted approach, and therefore welcomes the work of the UK Labour administration to strengthen workers’ rights, review universal credit, build a fairer social security system, and deliver a pay rise for 200,000 of the lowest-paid people in Scotland with a genuine living wage;

welcomes the establishment of a cross-government Child Poverty Ministerial Taskforce by the UK Government;

encourages the Scottish Government to work collaboratively to tackle the root causes of poverty across Scotland, and recognises that, to end poverty, action needs to be taken to get the economy moving, to get public services working, and to create more, decent well-paid jobs."

Original motion(S6M-16003): That the Parliament notes the investments outlined in the draft Scottish Budget for 2025-26 that focus on eradicating child poverty as a national mission and the single greatest priority for the Scottish Government, including continued investment in key policies such as funded early learning and childcare, concessionary travel for those under 22, employability services and social security;

further notes increased investment in the Affordable Housing Supply Programme and investment in breakfast clubs and to support the expansion of free school meals;

recognises that the Scottish Government’s efforts to tackle child poverty are being undermined by the social security policies of the UK Government;

welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to spend £3 million to develop the systems to deliver the mitigation of the two-child cap in 2026;

acknowledges analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group estimating that abolishing the two-child limit could lift 15,000 children in Scotland out of poverty;

recognises that the measures in the draft Scottish Budget 2025-26 will help to drive progress towards this national mission, and calls on the UK Government to match the ambition of the Scottish Government and abolish the two-child limit and benefit cap at the earliest possible opportunity.