Scotland · Seven practical changes
What would help cut poverty
changes on this page has been fully delivered. The rest are costed, published and still waiting.
What this means
Families need enough money to live on. Job schemes alone do not fix poverty.
Affordable homes and childcare that fits shift work also matter.
Most of the changes experts recommend have not been fully delivered.
A job matters. But families also need enough money left after rent, childcare and bills.
The shared finding of JRF, IPPR Scotland and the Fraser of Allander Institute
The scoreboard
Where the seven changes stand today
The research does not reach the 2030 target through job schemes alone. These are the seven changes experts have costed. This is how many have actually happened.
1
Delivered
The two-child limit was finally scrapped in April 2026, nine years after it started.
2
Started, not finished
Money has been committed, but well below what the costings say is needed.
4
Not done
Costed, published and recommended by independent experts. Still not funded.
Sorted by who can act
Each change, and the person to ask
Nothing on this list can be delivered by wanting it. Each one sits with a specific government, which means each one has a specific person you can write to.
Westminster
2 changes · write to your MP
The UK Government sets Universal Credit and help with private rent.
Scrap the two-child limit
Done, April 2026This stopped families getting normal support for a third or later child. It hit larger families hardest and was finally scrapped in April 2026.
Cost: Paid from the UK benefits budget
Make help with private rent match real local rents
Not doneFamilies would no longer have to fill such a large rent gap using money meant for other basics.
Cost: Paid from the UK benefits budget
Holyrood
5 changes · write to your MSP
The Scottish Government sets the Scottish Child Payment, housing and childcare.
Give extra Scottish Child Payment to the families at greatest risk
PartlyExperts estimate this could lift around 10,000 children out of poverty.
Cost: £310m a year
Make sure every eligible family gets the Scottish Child Payment
Not doneExperts estimate this could lift up to 10,000 more children out of poverty by 2030/31.
Cost: £60m a year
Build enough affordable homes
£4.1bn plannedLower housing costs leave families with more money for food, heat and other basics. It would also cut the huge hotel and B&B bill.
Cost: £8–9.2bn over five years
Provide childcare for under-3s at times that fit shift work
BarelyThis would help single parents take a job or work more hours.
Cost: £15m set aside
Fund Glasgow's homelessness shortfall
Not doneThis would help Glasgow meet its legal duty to house people and stop so much public money going on hotel rooms.
Cost: £56m (2026/27), £73m (2027/28)
The help that already exists
The is £28.20 per child per week, rising to £40 for under-ones from 2027.
It works. It is the main reason Scotland's line stayed flat while England's cities climbed. It is simply too small on its own to match the size of the problem.
The pattern
Governments keep picking the cheaper idea
Helping people find work costs less than putting money in their hands every week. So that is what gets funded — even though the government's own research says the expensive option is the one that moves the poverty figure.
What the 2026–31 plan spends on helping people find work
£90m
Real help, and worth having. It is not what the research says shifts the poverty figure most.
What experts cost the extra Scottish Child Payment at
£310m
Estimated to lift around 10,000 children out of poverty. Not funded.
Both figures are a year. Both are real choices made by the same government. That choice is on the record, and it is a fair thing to ask your MSP about.
Questions
What people ask about the changes
Does getting more people into work reduce child poverty?
What happened to the two-child limit?
How much would it cost to hit Scotland's child poverty target?
The research and exact workings
Scottish Government
The Scotland-wide headline poverty rates for all people, children, working-age adults and pensioners, and the share of children in poverty living in a working household.Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Modelled effect and cost of individual policy options.IPPR Scotland
Modelled effect and cost of individual policy options.Fraser of Allander Institute
Independent confirmation that income transfers, not employment programmes, drive the child poverty figure.CPAG in Scotland
Confirmation of the April 2026 abolition and current Scottish Child Payment rates.Glasgow City Council / Scottish Parliament
Temporary accommodation spending and the projected unfunded homelessness shortfall to 2027/28.Ask the people who can make these changes
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