A NEW Scottish benefit could lift thousands of children out of poverty, but cuts to family incomes from UK Government threatens progress, a leading think tank has said.

Monday marks the first day that families across Scotland will become eligible for the Scottish Child Payment, a new benefit designed to lift children out of poverty across the country.

The payment is £10 per week for each child under six in a household and will be made every four weeks. In the coming weeks, families on low incomes will find out whether they are eligible and when their payment will begin. It is expected to be rolled out to all children under 16 by the end of 2022.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) says the new benefit is expected to lift 30,000 children in Scotland – or 3% – out of poverty, while Westminster is poised to scrap a £20-per-week uplift to Universal Credit. Brought in earlier in the coronavirus pandemic, it is due to be removed at the end of next month.

Unlike Universal Credit and Child Tax Credits, there is no two-child limit on the Child Payment.

The JRF said: “After a year in which many families have been pulled under by strong currents of unemployment, ill-health and financial uncertainty, this support, coupled with the recently introduced Best Start Grants, is more needed than ever.

“Families on low incomes in Scotland will welcome this boost to their income on top of the lifeline provided by the UK Government when it increased Universal Credit by £20 per week at the start of the pandemic.”

Currently around 250,000 children in Scotland are growing up in poverty, which is around one in four children (24%). This means children are going without essentials like food, clothing and heating, and being locked out of opportunities.

The JRF says cuts to social security have been a main driver of child poverty in Scotland over the last few years. While the rate in Scotland is far too high, it says, it is 6% lower than the rest of the UK, where three in 10 children are growing up in poverty. The lower rate in Scotland is principally due to lower housing costs on average, meaning fewer families are pulled into poverty by expensive rents.

In 2017 the Scottish Parliament unanimously passed legislation with a target to bring child poverty below 10% by 2030. It also included an interim target to reduce child poverty to below 18% by 2023/24, in the middle of the next Scottish parliamentary session. The foundation said the Scottish Child Payment is a clear step forward in Scotland’s aim to stamp out child poverty but, as it has previusly highlighted, without further action the targets will not be met.

It said that while politicians in Holyrood have an ambition to act to free children from the grip of poverty, the UK Government in Westminster is poised to cut a key benefit in April, leaving millions of families adrift.

Chris Birt, deputy director for Scotland at the JRF, said: “With an election coming up, all parties must demonstrate how they plan to turn the tide on child poverty and meet their own ambitious targets.

“There is much more to do in Scotland, but the child payment is a vital part of the solution. By contrast, the UK Government is planning to cut social security at a time when unemployment is still rising, and the economic impact of the pandemic continues to cause real hardship.”