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Central Ayrshire Labour Candidate, Alan Gemmell OBE, if elected, will do what Sir Keir Starmer tells him to do. Any suggestion of disloyalty and he’d be dumped quicker that guy in Rochdale for daring to criticise Israel.
Yesterday, in the Ardrossan Herald, Gemmell is urging action on poverty.
Last year End Child Poverty made clear the role of the Two Child Benefit Cap in pushing 1.5 million UK children into poverty. There are 1 560 of them in Central Ayrshire.
What will Labour and a Scottish Labour MP do about this?
Talking-up Scotland costs nothing so donate to our friends at https://www.broadcastingscotland.scot/donate/ or take out a subscription to the Scots Independent newspaper in which I have a column, at: https://scotsindependent.scot/FWShop/product-category/subscriptions/
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
THE LABOUR
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Oh, aye.
We remember Streeting saying that we can have a well funded health service or we can take children out of poverty, but we can’t have both.
Indeed.
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From the Resolution Foundation (31 January 2024) ‘Catastrophic caps – An analysis of the impact of the two-child limit and the benefit cap’.
See https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/catastophic-caps/
In this detailed assessment, we learn: ‘In the benefit system, entitlement and need are intertwined: the greater the need, the more benefit income a family is usually entitled to receive. But in the 2010s, TWO POLICIES WERE INTRODUCED THAT DELINKED ENTITLEMENT AND NEED by limiting the amount of benefits some families could receive: the benefit cap in 2013, and the two-child limit in 2017.’ (my emphasis)
‘THE TWO-CHILD LIMIT RESULTS IN LOW-INCOME FAMILIES LOSING AROUND £3,200 A YEAR FOR ANY THIRD OR SUBSEQUENT CHILD BORN AFTER APRIL 2017. And when 100,000s of families lose out on £1,000s of benefit income a year, POVERTY RATES SOAR.
‘IN 2013-14, 34 PER CENT OF CHILDREN IN LARGER FAMILIES WERE IN POVERTY, BUT THIS IS PROJECTED TO RISE TO 51 PER CENT IN 2028-29. In contrast, the proportion of two-child families in poverty is projected to remain more or less constant over the same 15-year period, at around 25 per cent. Other outcomes are also worse for larger families: in the year 2021-22, three-quarters (75 per cent) of larger families were in material deprivation, compared to 3-in-10 families with fewer than three children (34 per cent); and 16 per cent of larger families were in food insecurity, compared to 7 per cent of families with fewer than three children.’
‘Abolishing the two-child limit would cost the Government £2.5 billion in 2024-25, rising to £3.6 billion in 2024-25 prices if the policy were at full coverage. THESE COSTS ARE LOW COMPARED TO THE HARM THAT THE POLICY CAUSES, AND SCRAPPING THE TWO-CHILD LIMIT WOULD BE ONE OF THE MOST EFFICIENT WAYS TO DRIVE DOWN CHILD POVERTY RATES. IF ABOLISHED TODAY, 490,000 CHILDREN WOULD BE LIFTED OUT OF POVERTY.’
And it goes on: ‘Consider the benefit cap, where THE NUMBERS AFFECTED HAVE INCREASED FROM AROUND 26,000 IN 2013-14 TO 108,000 FAMILIES IN 2022-23. The cap’s real value has fallen every year since its introduction, with the solitary exception of April 2023 when it was uprated in line with inflation: it was cut in nominal terms in 2016, and frozen in all other years. AS A RESULT, BY APRIL 2024, THE BENEFIT CAP WILL BE WORTH £14,000 LESS IN REAL TERMS FOR FAMILIES OUTSIDE OF LONDON, AND £10,000 LESS FOR THOSE IN LONDON, THAN IT WAS AT ITS INTRODUCTION IN 2013.’
Assigned ONLY a brief mention in the article from the Resolution Foundatio : ‘Note that THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT PROVIDE DISCRETIONARY HOUSING PAYMENTS TO MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF THE BENEFIT CAP. See: Scottish Government, Helping families with their living costs, accessed 3 January 2024, for more information.’ But no mention of the Scottish Child Payment.
From the Scottish Government website in a news release dated 20 February 2023 and entitled ‘Helping families with their living costs’ ‘Extra funding to help offset UK Government benefit cap: THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT IS PROVIDING £8.6 MILLION IN DIRECT SUPPORT FOR PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THE UK BENEFIT CAP AS PART OF ITS WORK TO TACKLE CHILD POVERTY.
‘AN ESTIMATED 4,000 FAMILIES WITH AROUND 14,000 CHILDREN ARE NOW ABLE TO APPLY for extra financial support through their local council’s Discretionary Housing Payments scheme.’
‘John Dickie, Chair of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: “Mitigating the UK benefit cap is ABSOLUTELY THE RIGHT THING TO DO. Support for struggling families shouldn’t have AN ARBITRARY LIMIT THAT PUSHES CHILDREN INTO DEEPER POVERTY.
“It’s now vital that everyone affected by the benefit cap applies to their local authority for a Discretionary Housing Payment to replace as far as possible the cash support removed by the cap. THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT HAS DONE THE RIGHT THING, now the UK Government must act to scrap the cap altogether.”
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SNP Gov policy. £25 a week child payment for lower income households. Vote SNP to alleviate poverty.
Social care, prescriptions, bus passes, baby boxes, extended nursery care, school meals, breakfast clubs. Kinship payments. Care allowances. Uni places, lower fees, colleges and apprenticeships. The ability to learn, not the ability to pay. Lifelong learning. More equal taxes. To help alleviate poverty.
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Taking children out of poverty will improve the health service. Improve the economy and well being. A more cohesive society. Health before wealth. Illness affects everybody.
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