A Child Poverty Bill for Scotland - Consultation Response

While achieving these targets would be a promising and considerable step towards eradicating child poverty in Scotland, the targets also demonstrate the shameful truth that, in 2015/14, 160,000 children in Scotland lived in relative poverty before housing costs.

An additional 60,000 children were living in poverty after housing costs – entailing that more than one in five children in Scotland lived in relative poverty in 2014/15.2 Further still, absolute child poverty in the UK is estimated to increase from around 15.1 per cent to 18.3 per cent over the next 5 years.

Shelter Scotland is particularly pleased that the targets have an after housing costs basis, as we feel that this more accurately represents the fact that housing costs are almost always a given. However, we are concerned by the lack of clarity and guidance surrounding what housing costs would include and that this is likely not to adequately represent the true housing costs of many households with children.