Scotland is a relatively rich country yet one in four of Scotland’s children are officially recognised as living in poverty. In some areas over one in three children grow up in poverty, in Springburn Glasgow it is over 50%. With Scotland’s undoubted wealth this is an unacceptable crime against future generations. Our child poverty rate is considerably higher than other European countries. In Denmark and Norway approximately 10% of children live in poverty, whilst Germany the rate is 15%, even these rates are unacceptable in any modern, supposedly civilised, country. All of these countries are wealthy yet they have children living in poverty, so it isn’t the lack of resources, it is the system we live under, that breeds poverty and then traps people in that poverty. It is an indictment of that system that poverty remains one of the most serious problems facing children today. Its effects last a lifetime, negatively impacting on health, education, social and physical development and seriously harming future life chances and opportunities.
