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Poverty in Scotland 2018

This new analysis looks at poverty trends for families with children in Scotland, reflecting the commitments in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act to achieve substantial reductions by 2030.

Written by:
Dr. Jim McCormick
Date published:

The research highlights upcoming Scottish Government labour market strategies that have the potential to transform the lives of many families in poverty, calling for strong alignment and action from both government and business. It finds that:

  • Barriers to the labour market due to disability, ill health and childcare responsibilities remain prevalent characteristics of child poverty, despite improvements over the last two decades.
  • Two in five children in poverty have a reported disability or ill health in the family, with many of these children having no parents in work.
  • On average, the majority of children in poverty do have at least one adult in work and in many cases, parents are working all the hours expected of them by the social security system.
  • Understanding the barriers to work for parents and how this interacts with job quality, in particular for women, is key to understanding poverty in Scotland and how to tackle it.

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