Scandal of kids living without basics
MORE than one in 10 Scots children are in families who are on the breadline, research has revealed.
Fourteen per cent of kids are living on what Labour described as a “financial cliff-edge”.
In some areas, more than a fifth of children are living in “material deprivation”.
The figure is as high as 22 per cent in South Lanarkshire and nearly 24 per cent in Dumfries and Galloway.
Labour said kids are living without basic necessities but are slipping through the net as their families are not officially classed as low-income.
Scottish Labour’s communities spokeswoman Monica Lennon said thousands of families are one unexpected bill away from being in real trouble.
She added: “These are families on a financial cliff-edge – victims of a broken economy that doesn’t work for the many but instead for a privileged few at the top. The SNP and the Tories have both failed to make the economy work for these families.”
But SNP Communities Secretary Angela Constance blamed UK Government cuts.
She added: “Our new Child Poverty Act sets targets for the eradication of child poverty by 2030.
“We are already taking actions including expanding free childcare, investing in free school meals and spending around £100million a year mitigating the worst of UK Government welfare cuts.”