Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Scotland's Child Poverty

One-fifth of children in Scotland live in families that are in poverty and cannot afford basic necessities, new figures show.

20% of children in Scotland live in families which are both classified as having limited resources - meaning they have low incomes, defined as having 70% of middle income - and also live in material deprivation, so cannot afford basics such as being able to repair or replace a broken kettle.

Children in Glasgow were more likely to live in families with limited resources than the rest of Scotland, with 41% of youngsters affected.


The report shows children are more likely than the Scottish average to live in families with limited resources if they live in a single parent household (42%), have three or more siblings (39%), live with a disabled adult (32%) and if no or only one adult in the home works (67%).

Living in a rented home and in a deprived area both mean children have a higher likelihood than the Scottish average of being in poverty, with 53% of those in social rented accommodation and 30% in private rented homes affected and 40% of those in the most deprived areas.

In the list of basic necessities, they found 34% of children live in families which do not have £500 to cover an unexpected, but necessary, expense; 21% do not have enough money to repair or replace broken electrical goods; 17% lack the cash to take part in sports or other exercise and 8% are too poor to live in a damp-free home. For child necessities, researchers found 21% of children did not have money to save, 20% did not have a yearly holiday, 5% could not access a computer and the internet for homework and 2% did not have a warm winter coat.

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