Changing Realities at the SNP Conference

I recently had the pleasure of being asked to be one of a small handful of speakers at the SNP conference in Aberdeen to share our perspectives on the Child Poverty Strategy. We each had our own time to speak. My speech focussed on my experience of receiving the Scottish Child Payment (SCP), how's it's impacted my family and most importantly the need for these payments to not only be increased but extended beyond the age of 16. I believe it should be modelled in a similar way to Child Benefit payments. I further explained how the introduction of the SCP has been a lifeline for my family and others. After all kids need to thrive - not just survive!

Whilst I feel the SCP is not a complete solution to tackling child poverty in Scotland, increasing and extending its reach could help thousands more families stay afloat. I truly believe this is a feasible and impactful policy area that, if strengthened further, could continue to make meaningful strides in tackling child poverty and provide support for families struggling. As studies indicate, the current payment level is insufficient to meet current child poverty targets and therefore, making vital further investments should be a crucial part of any future delivery plans.

Child poverty eradication is the SNP's top priority, with ambitious 2030 targets. I feel progress has been made, but major challenges remain. Researchers have concluded that achieving the 2030 target is possible but only with additional spending. The most direct and targeted route for this spending would be to increase social security payments to families in or at risk of poverty. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Scotland modelled that doubling the Scottish Child Payment would add around £500m to the social security budget in 2030 and would lift 40,000 more children out of poverty (thus cutting the child poverty rate by an additional four percentage points). Furthermore, Scotland's leading charities pinpoint the progress of the Scottish Child Payment but also warn that the ambitious target to reduce child poverty to 10% by 2030 will be missed unless the benefit is substantially increased to £40 per week. In fact, further independent analysis by IPPR indicates that this specific increase could lift an extra 20,000 children out of poverty.

SNP Social Justice Secretary, Shirley-Anne Somerville, was also a speaker at our event. Following a passionate speech, she reiterated that:

"We are absolutely committed to meeting the 2030 child poverty targets and will continue to do everything we can to deliver the change needed".

Towards the end of the discussions, we opened up the questions from the audience. The room by then, however compact, was packed full of audience members eager to ask questions to each of us on the panel. Everyone contributed well to each of the questions and to the open discussions that followed.

Being a part of the panel was both a wonderful and rewarding experience. On quiet reflection, the most rewarding part is not only sharing my lived experience with others willing to listen but also feeling my voice is being really heard and my making valuable contributions towards these bigger discussions on how best to tackle child poverty. What better people to hear this from is from parents with real expertise on this? I felt more energised and it's given me a bigger sense of purpose being a part of the wonderful Changing realities and CPAG team.