Meeting of the Parliament 10 December 2025
I am very short of time—sorry.
The Scottish Government has chosen to expand entitlements, but those choices must be matched with credible financial planning. Warm words do not fund commitments; responsible government does.
The announcement in the UK budget of the removal of the two-child limit is a significant anti-poverty measure, and it should be welcomed. It will lift an estimated 450,000 children across the UK out of poverty, including around 95,000 in Scotland. It is the single most cost-effective action to drive down child poverty rates, and it is unquestionably the right thing to do.
Let us be clear: the two-child cap was—as I have said—a deliberate Conservative policy choice, and it pushed families into poverty and imposed long-term costs on health, education and economic potential. Removing it was the right thing to do, and the decision was taken at the right time, when it could be delivered sustainably and responsibly.
However, the nature of child poverty has changed. Nearly three quarters of children in poverty in Scotland are in working households. Poverty today is not simply an issue of unemployment—it is about low pay, insecurity and the rising cost of essential goods. That is why action such as increasing the national living wage, raising the basic rate of universal credit, supporting energy bills and strengthening employment rights matter. Those measures help working families to stay afloat.
In Scotland, after 18 years of SNP Government, relative child poverty after housing costs has fallen by just 1 per cent. The Government’s own targets will not be met unless there is urgent action in the areas where it has fallen short. That must include investing properly in employability services, rather than cutting £30 million from budgets, and addressing Scotland’s housing emergency, which currently leaves 10,000 children in temporary accommodation.
We cannot talk seriously about tackling poverty without addressing the central role of work. For those who can work, secure employment is the most sustainable route out of poverty. Parents need flexible work options, affordable childcare and targeted support to enable them to get into, and progress in, the labour market. Too many young people are not in education, employment or training. The disability employment gap in Scotland is wider than that in the rest of the UK, with almost 300,000 working-age people in Scotland out of work because of illness.
In conclusion, Scotland needs a Government that sets out a credible plan for funding its commitments; that aligns social security with opportunity; and that uses every lever at its disposal to improve people’s lives.
I move amendment S6M-20056.2, to leave out from first “believes” to end and insert:
“notes with concern Audit Scotland’s recent assessment of a ‘funding gap for devolved social security spending of £2.0 billion by 2029/30’ and the absence of a ‘detailed strategy for how [the Scottish Government] will manage the forecast gap between social security funding and spending’; welcomes the announcement in the 2025 UK Budget of the removal of the two-child limit for universal credit, noting that this will lift an estimated 450,000 children across the UK out of poverty and that, in the assessment of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, ‘the projected fall in child poverty over the current parliament would be the biggest on record’; believes that this must be followed by a renewed focus in Scotland on tackling the causes of poverty and boosting the means of defeating it, such as employability, housing and education, and further believes that the long-term solution to breaking the generational cycle of poverty in Scotland must include supporting people into sustainable and well-paid work.”
15:05Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.