Child poverty set to rise in Glasgow
Child poverty in Glasgow is expected to rise to 50,000 children over the next 24 months despite a target to reduce child poverty across the next four years.
While the city council expected its target of 18% to be both challenging and ambitious, instead an increase of 10,000 children in poverty is projected across the city.
Currently a third of all children in the city live in poverty.
The City Treasurer, Allan Gow, in a report to councillors said: “The levels of child poverty in Glasgow are amongst the highest in Scotland and the scale of the challenge for the council and Health Board is significant.
“It is important to note that child poverty levels in Glasgow are expected to increase as a result of economic and welfare changes. The levels of child poverty continue to be a serious issue in the city, with distribution of child poverty across the city varying from ward to ward.”
That range spans from 11% of children in the Partick East and Kelvindale area living in poverty to just under half of children living in Calton in the east end.
Only two of 23 wards across the city are below the target of 18% set by the city council.
Mr Gow called on additional support for those in need, saying: “Those citizens already struggling to make ends meet will need more support from city services.
“The Scottish Government Annual Report 2017 Welfare Reform Act 2012 highlights the loss to the Glasgow economy from 2015 to 2020/2021 as a result of welfare reform to be £120 million.”
A household with a single parent and two children is defined as living in poverty if they are living on less than £306 per week after housing costs have been deducted.
The report says almost half of all children experiencing poverty in Glasgow live in a household where someone is working.
Children’s rights lawyer Tracy Kirk said: “Something more needs to be done, and if it needs to be making sure that in law you have a right to food then that would be a good place to start, but it would be a start and I think it’s important we see it as a start.
“It’s the point where we all start talking and saying what else can we do to start improving things for children and young people, which ultimately benefits the whole population.
“Child poverty has an impact on every single area of someone’s life which is why it’s so important we do something about it.
“Thinking about education and thinking about the fact children are going to school without food in their stomachs, they’re not going to be able to learn. This has a knock-on effect when they go to high school, and when they go out into the workplace they won’t have the skills they require.
“It’s a postcode lottery and I don’t think that’s unique to Glasgow at all, but Glasgow does see extreme poverty. It’s more recognisable because of the amount of people.”
The council has made attempts at easing the financial burden of those in poverty, including increasing the school closing grant to £110 a year which 28,000 children qualify for, and the holiday hunger programme rolled across the city, funding community groups which offer activities with a meal at lunchtime.
