210,000 kids living in poverty; Call for action on deprivation.

Byline: Lucinda Cameron

ONE in five children in Scotland is living in poverty, a study revealed yesterday.

The figures show 210,000 Scots children were living in poverty in 2006-7, the most recent statistic available.

And although levels of child deprivation had been falling faster north of the Border for the last decade, the fall has stalled since 2004-5.

The authors of the report, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said measures to reduce deprivation were now fairly similar to the rest of the UK.

But joint author Stephen Sinclair said Scotland had greater political opportunities to end child poverty.

Sinclair, of the Scottish poverty information unit at Glasgow Caledonian University, added: "This places a huge responsibility on the Scottish government to do all it can to achieve the target of eradicating child poverty by 2020."

The report - Child Poverty In Scotland: Taking The Next Steps - calls on both Holyrood and Westminster to do more to reduce Scottish child poverty and suggests a range of policy measures.

The authors want the government to introduce measures such as encouraging employers to create more flexible jobs and increasing access to affordable, flexible childcare.

Dilute

The report also calls for consideration to be given to the idea of a Scottish living wage.

And it warns the current policy of targeting the poorest 30 per cent could dilute the resources focused on those experiencing the most severe poverty if there are not enough extra resources to cope with it.

The authors acknowledge some measures are beyond the current devolved powers of the Scottish government.

But they suggest the two governments could work more closely together to reduce the benefits trap by allowing greater overlap between employment and benefit entitlement.

The report's joint author John McKendrick, also of the unit, said: "Households with child poverty must be enabled to move beyond a quality of life unbecoming for 21st-century Scotland."

John Dickie, of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said: "This is not just about statistics, it's about over 200,000 real children whose lives are too often damaged, diminished and cut short because their parents are bringing them up on hopelessly inadequate incomes."

A government spokesman said: "Within our limited devolved powers, we are doing everything possible to tackle child poverty.

"Scotland will be best placed to eradicate child poverty when full responsibility for all tax, spending and social welfare issues come within the control of the Scottish parliament."