JRF reports shows poverty rates "broadly flat", but remain too high
/This article was featured in the SCDC Weekly - 5th February 2025
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a new report showing that more than 14 million people in the UK (1 in 5) were living in the poverty during 2022/23. These figures are broadly stable and vary little from the 2021/22 data, showing that unacceptably high levels of poverty persist, with economic security still out of reach for millions of people.
Children continue to bear the brunt, with 30% of UK children living in poverty, the highest rate of all groups. This figure increases to 45% in families with 3 or more children, in large part due to social security policies such as the two-child benefit cap.
In Scotland, child poverty sits at 24% compared to 30% in England and 29% in Wales, a difference which JRF say is "likely to be due, at least in part, to the Scottish Child Payment".
The Scottish budget, currently working its way through parliament, is set to include new measures to mitigate, from next year, the two-child benefit cap in Scotland. The Scottish Child Payment will also see an inflationary uplift, which anti-poverty groups say should be higher to properly address child poverty rates.
These measures are part of the Scottish Government's plans to "eradicate" child poverty, with the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 requiring ministers to ensure fewer than 10% of children are living in poverty by 2030, and 18% by 2023/24. Interim figures on progress towards this key policy goal are due to be published next month.
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