The STUC is appalled that 100,000 children
live in poverty in Scotland and will call
on both the UK and Scottish Governments
to take steps to end the scourge the of
child poverty across Scotland.
Delegates called for a review of the
benefit system to ensure that it acts
as a genuine safety net against poverty;
and a wider provision of good quality,
affordable childcare to improve parents
access to work and children's education
outcomes.
UNISON Scotland's Kate Ramsden supporting
an USDAW motion said that that the STUC
had highlighted as far back as 2010 that
cuts and austerity would lead to a rise
in the numbers of children in poverty.
She said, 'UNISON and the trade union
movement has raised at every turn the
shame of a society which allows one in
five of our children to grow up in poverty.
Most of these children are growing up
in families that have at least one parent
working, working for poverty pay. Many
of them our members'
She told the STUC that 'obscene cuts
to welfare and a draconian sanctions policy
have seen more and more families resort
to food banks. Whilst the richest 1000
in the UK have seen their wealth increase
by £190 billion - money that the
rest of us can only dream of.
"This can’t be right. What
kind of country do we live in that allows
children to go hungry when there is so
much wealth around?" slammed Kate
“The truth is that child poverty
could be eradicated tomorrow if the political
will was there to do it. If money can
be found to renew Trident then money is
there to take our children out of poverty.
Heck even a fraction of that £190
billion would go a long way to ending
child poverty."
Kate called on all of us to challenge
the low wage economy, to challenge the
benefits system that fails to do what
it was set up for and to create a decent
and fair society where social justice
prevails. The kind of society where no
child has to grow up in poverty.
