Tuesday January 7th 2025
Midlothian MP, Kirsty McNeill.
This View has been written by Midlothian MP, Kirsty McNeill.
On Christmas morning I let my mind wander to every wee one opening a science kit who might one day find themselves working at the Roslin Institute, everyone kicking a new ball thinking about catching Steve Clarke’s eye. But I also thought about the kids whose Christmas had an edge to it, those whose families are right up against it with debt and bills and find the January mail the most frightening of the year.
That’s why my focus this year is going to be resolutely on family finances. Just consider this for a moment: more than half of the children facing poverty in Midlothian are in households where someone’s in work. I recently met with Midlothian’s Trussell food bank to learn about the support they are providing to families who have been struggling with growing bills and shrinking pay. More than 262,400 emergency food parcels were distributed across Scotland in 2023/24, with 75% needing support from a food bank because their income doesn’t cover the essentials.
Behind that statistic is a devastating story of low pay and folk who are doing everything right but still finding there’s too much of the month left when their account skids towards red. It’s only been six months since the General Election but already we are implementing the plans that will make work pay. Labour is ushering in the biggest upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation by scrapping exploitative zero hours contracts, ending fire and rehire and delivering a pay rise to 200,000 of the lowest-paid Scots – including more than one in twenty workers in Midlothian.
In our budget we also made sure to target resources to those who most need the help. 1.7 million families in Scotland will see their working-age benefits uprated in line with inflation, and 125,000 pensioners in Scotland who are eligible for Pension Credit will benefit from an additional £465 a year for single pensioners and up to £710 a year more for couples.
There is no denying there were difficult choices last year too, but this year we should start to see the benefits of the National Wealth Fund, GB Energy, the Help to Save scheme giving over 200,000 Scots a savers’ bonus of up to £1,200, the investment of £200 million for town centre regeneration across Scotland, a fuel duty decision that will save more than 3 million people across Scotland money at the pumps and reforms to Universal Credit that will leave families in Scotland around £420 better off on average.
But we know there’s much more to be done. That’s why a crucial part of my role as Minister for Scotland is contributing to the UK Government’s Child Poverty Task Force, through which we’re developing an ambitious strategy to make sure every child gets a decent start.
When we hosted the Task Force in Scotland we heard so powerfully from families going through poverty, as well as the charities and public services who are providing them with support, that people want their problems dealt with at source. Families need a serious, cross-governmental plan to deal with the core driver of child poverty in Scotland – an economy which doesn’t work for working people.
These testimonies will be key in shaping our next steps. To do right by families, listening to folk in Midlothian and right across Scotland – and putting their needs at the heart of the Labour Government’s plans – is the right place to start.
Tweet Share on Facebook
