Challenging poverty

Thomas Baldwin looks ahead to Challenge Poverty Week, which takes place this month.

“It is hard to fully articulate the seismic difference that an adequate income would make to hundreds of thousands of people across Scotland; providing enough to have the dignity to live a decent, healthy and financially secure life; a foundation to build from. The opportunity for people to realise their potential, not just to escape the all-consuming burden of debt and poverty, but to be able to flourish.” (Report of the Church of Scotland’s Faith Action Programme Leadership Team (FAPLT) to the 2024 General Assembly).

POVERTY has been high on the news agenda again this summer, as the new UK Government faced pressure from campaigners (and some of its own MPs) to remove the two-child cap on child benefit, and over its decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Payment for pensioners.

Anti-poverty campaigners, including the Church of Scotland, will be hoping to keep the issue in the public eye during Challenge Poverty Week (October 7-13). The week, organised by the Poverty Alliance, a coalition of community groups, voluntary organisations, national charities, councils, trade unions and faith groups, began in Scotland but has since spread to England and Wales, and aims to shed a light on the ongoing struggles of people living with poverty. Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has been involved for four years, and says that the week helps ‘establish important relationships with local politicians and create opportunities for future collaboration’, as well as generating press and social media coverage that last year reached seven million people.

“ The Christian church’s work to reduce poverty goes back to the Acts of the Apostles, when the earliest believers ‘sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need’ (Acts 2:45).

Definitions of poverty differ, but official statistics often refer to relative poverty (defined as having a household income of less than 60% of the current UK median) and absolute poverty (a household income of less than 60% of the UK median in 2010/11, adjusted for inflation).

By these measures, according to the Scottish Government, around 17% of the population (940,000 people each year) were living in absolute poverty after housing costs in 2020-23, and 16% (850,000) before housing costs. For relative poverty, the figures increase to 21% of Scotland’s population (1,110,000 people each year) after housing costs, and 19% of the population (1,020,000 people) before housing costs.

After a long decline from the midnineties to the mid-2010s, absolute poverty rates have remained at similar levels over the last decade, while rates for relative poverty after housing costs have actually increased.

Families with children are more likely to be living in poverty, and the Government figures show that 24% of children (240,000 children each year) were living in relative poverty and 21% (210,000 children each year) in absolute poverty after housing costs, with rates rising since 2013.

Children in a household of three or more children, with a disabled household member, or in a minority ethnic household, were at higher risk of living in poverty. And 70% of children in relative poverty were living in households where at least one person was working, demonstrating that work does not necessarily pay enough to keep the household above the poverty threshold in Scotland today.

The problem of hunger also continues to grow, with 16% of people and 22% of children living in households with ‘marginal, low or very’ low food security. In the wake of the fuel price rises of recent years, fuel poverty has also increased, with 31% of households (around 791,000) officially in fuel poverty in 2022, and 18.5% (around 472,000) in extreme fuel poverty (defined as needing to spend at least 20% of the household’s income on fuel to maintain an acceptable standard of living).

Against this backdrop, the Poverty Alliance will devote each day of this year’s Challenge Poverty Week to a specific theme: housing, transport, income, food, and community and volunteers, with the final weekend given over to ‘reflection’. Each day will begin with a breakfast briefing at which Poverty Alliance and guest speakers will discuss the problems of poverty around that day’s theme, and present their policy asks: that everyone in Scotland should have a safe, secure and sustainable home; access to affordable and reliable public transport; should earn enough to live ‘a decent and dignified life’; and should have dignified access to healthy food. They also call for ‘a Scotland where we value our community and volunteers’.

The Christian church’s work to reduce poverty goes back to the Acts of the Apostles, when the earliest believers ‘sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need’ (Acts 2:45). True to this tradition, the Church of Scotland has a long history of concern for the poorest people in society, as a glance at almost any issue in the 145-year history of Life and Work would confirm.

Most recently, this year’s General Assembly backed calls from the Faith Action Programme Leadership Team (FAPLT) for the introduction of a Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), set at an amount which would ‘secure a dignified quality of life for all’, also one of the demands of the Poverty Alliance. This is an option being explored by the Scottish Government, although it has warned that a full MIG may require further powers to be devolved from London.

It would take account of individual and family circumstances, be delivered through a targeted payment and other forms of support, and would be adaptable to take account to changes in the cost of living ‘in a timely manner’. The FAPLT report says this ‘would move away from arbitrary levels of payments set by politicians’. It also notes that the idea has ‘received a strong endorsement from those attending Priority Areas events where it has been explored’.

The Assembly also endorsed calls for the church to engage with the Priority Areas, the 5 per cent most deprived parishes in Scotland, to which the Church devotes extra resources and support. One starting point may be the Church’s Weekly Worship resources for October, available at www. churchofscotland.org.uk/worship/weeklyworship, which have all been prepared by Priority Area congregations. As well as offering suggested readings, music and sermon themes, the resources encourage congregations to explore how they can engage in anti-poverty issues at a local level. The Priority Areas team will also be running an event on Saturday October 12, 10am4pm at the Renfield Centre in Glasgow, to discuss the Minimum Income Guarantee. ¤

There is further information on the church’s Priority Areas work at www.churchofscotland. org.uk /connect/priority-areas For more information on Challenge Poverty Week https://www.povertyalliance.org/cpw/