Dr Rhian Croke, Strategic Litigation and Policy Advocacy Lead, Children’s Legal Centre Wales
Child Poverty in Wales
A 2025 report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reveals that child poverty in Wales is on track to hit its highest level in 30 years by the decade’s end, with over 34% of children expected to live in low-income households. This is a crisis deeply affecting today’s children but also threatens future generations. By 2029, JRF estimates that 32,000 more children will be pushed below the poverty line—many of them due to deliberate policy choices.
However, just over 300 miles away in Scotland interventions are lifting children out of poverty, with further anticipated reductions by the end of the decade. Approximately, 31% of children in Wales are currently living in relative income poverty (after housing costs), compared to 23% of children in Scotland.[i]
Devolution and the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment
The devolution of some social security powers in Scotland, has contributed to a more hopeful future for many children in this jurisdiction compared to other parts of the UK. The 2018 Scottish Social Security Act established a framework for the new system and devolves 11 existing social security benefits to Scotland. Amongst these new developments, the Scottish Child Payment stands out as the most significant change to offer more financial support to those families with children on low incomes. The Scottish Child Payment (SCP) is a key policy designed to tackle child poverty in Scotland. The SCP is designed to provide financial support to low-income families, aiming to reduce child poverty by offering direct payments to those who need it most. The payment is available to families receiving certain benefits, including Universal Credit, Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Pension Credit, Child Tax Credit, or Working Tax Credit.
How the Scottish Child Payment Has Evolved
Introduced by the Scottish Government in 2020, the SCP provides a weekly payment to low-income families with children under the age of 16 and offers crucial financial support to families facing financial hardship. There is no limit to the number of children in a family who can receive the SCP, ensuring that all eligible children benefit from this support.
First payments were at a rate of £10 a week for each child under 6 years. Doubling of the payment to £20 a week per child was announced in November 2021 with payments at that level starting from April 2022. The payment was then raised to £25 per child, per week, from November 2022. This meant that at this time, a family on a low income with three children under 16 could receive a payment of £300 a month, raising their annual income to almost £4000 more than an equivalent family in England or Wales.
As of April 2025, the SCP has increased to £27.15 per week for each eligible child under 16. This payment is made every four weeks, totalling £108.60 per child each month. Campaigners in Scotland are however, calling for the payment to extend to £40 per week to fully enhance the poverty reducing impact of this policy.
Key Benefits for Reducing Child Poverty
By offering direct cash payments to families, the SCP helps alleviate immediate financial pressures. This can significantly reduce the likelihood of families falling into poverty, helping them meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing. Globally, there is substantial evidence that direct child benefit payments effectively reduce poverty. Evidence also shows that financial support like the SCP can have a significant impact on reducing the overall levels of child poverty. For instance, a 2025 study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that targeted financial interventions like the SCP could lift thousands of children out of poverty. Experts such as Professor Danny Dorling from Oxford University has also forecasted that the expansion and increase of the payments will shift Scotland from being one of the most unequal regions in Europe to becoming one of the most equal.
The payment is targeted, ensuring that it reaches the families who need it most. This targeting of resources helps to maximise the impact on those experiencing the highest levels of poverty. Furthermore, by being a child centred intervention, focusing on children, the SCP directly addresses the financial challenges that hinder a child’s well-being, such as access to education, healthcare, and extracurricular activities, which can have long-term positive effects on their future prospects. The interim evaluation of the Scottish Child Payment is evidencing positive outcomes for children. Additionally, by increasing household income, the SCP also acts as an economic stimulus in low-income areas, as families are more likely to spend the money locally, benefiting local economies.
Powerful and Effective Model to Reduce Child Poverty
In a recent report from the Bevan Foundation, from a modelling exercise they have discovered that the introduction of a Welsh Child Payment would be the ‘most powerful and effective’ intervention. The Foundation communicates that although powers may not extend to the Welsh Government, they ‘could explore mechanisms such as grant based schemes or top up payments to deliver direct financial support to children in low-income households’. Alongside this interim measure, the Foundation are calling for a comprehensive Welsh benefits system, to streamline support and provide a more effective safety net for those in need.
The call for a Welsh Child Payment has also been made by a powerful collaboration of agencies, that the Children’s Legal Centre Wales is a part of, A Law for every Child/Bil Pob Plentyn facilitated by the Senedd Cross Party Group on Children and Families and the Senedd Cross Party Group Children in Our Care.
Final Reflections
The Scottish Child Payment is proving to be an effective tool in the fight against child poverty, providing essential financial support to children and their families whilst also fostering long-term improvements in the lives of children across Scotland.
As Professor Ann Skelton, then Chair of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child made clear in the Observatory on Human Rights of Children Children’s Rights Annual Lecture in 2023, there should be no discrimination in the enjoyment of rights by children in different regions. But this is alarmingly, what we are seeing occurring in the context of the UK state party, that children affected by poverty in Scotland compared to children affected by poverty 300 miles away in Wales will experience better life chances.
Consecutive Children’s Commissioners for Wales have communicated their concerns in relation to the devastating and corrosive impact of child poverty on the fulfilment of the full range of children’s rights and have called for more devolved powers over benefits and most recently an equivalent payment to children in Wales.
We are witnessing a long-term failure in accountability to children living in poverty in Wales. Evidence is demonstrating what action could be taken to ensure the well-being of this generation of children, as well as future generations, we now need to see that backed up with political will.
The Children’s Legal Centre Wales like many partner organisations across Wales is calling for increased control over benefits in Wales, and the urgent introduction of a Welsh Child Payment.
END NOTE
[i] The latest DWP Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data—covering Financial Years Ending 2022 to 2024—shows that 31% of children in Wales were living in relative income poverty (i.e., in households with income below 60% of the UK median, after housing costs). This figure represents a three-year average blending data from April 2021 to March 2024. Compared to 23% of children in Scotland, (after housing costs) over the same three-year period