Social Justice Secretary is calling on the UK Government to match the
Scottish Government's cost of living support in its forthcoming
budget.
Ms Somerville is appearing at the Social Justice, Housing and
Local Government Committee this morning (Wednesday) and will
outline measures being taken by the Scottish Government to tackle
poverty and the cost of living. The Scottish Government is
allocating around £3.5 billion to help reduce pressures on
household budgets this year and says the UK Government should
announce a similar package to address the cost of living.
Ms Somerville said:
We have made great strides in our ambitious mission to eradicate
child poverty and tackle the cost of living.
We are delivering the strongest package of cost of living
measures for low income families anywhere in the UK and we are
calling on the UK Government to match it. This year, we will
allocate around £3.5 billion to help reduce pressures on
household budgets and have set out plans to go further through
the roll-out of our £2 bus fare cap, cutting the cost of travel
for hundreds of thousands of households.
Our policies are estimated to keep around 100,000 children out of
relative poverty this year -
we've expanded breakfast
clubs and delivered unparalleled financial
support through our five
family payments, including the
Scottish Child Payment.
"Yet the UK Government has consistently ignored calls from
charities to match the Scottish Child Payment and scrap the
benefit cap and the young parent penalty' in Universal Credit
which leave families facing hardship.
We are investing a record £115 million this year in Discretionary
Housing Payments to reduce poverty, safeguard tenancies and
prevent homelessness. That investment mitigates the impact of the
UK Government's bedroom tax, benefit cap and freeze to Local
Housing Allowance rates for households with children.
We have long been clear that these are punitive policies which
lead to poverty and homelessness and we are again calling on the
UK Government to scrap them.
