Child poverty target met in Scotland

Scotland has met its target of reducing child poverty by a quarter by 2005 according to new figures released by the Scottish Executive yesterday.

Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions alongside the Executive’s show that the UK government had not managed to meet the target in England.

Malcom Chisholm, Scotland’s communities minister, said that between 1998 and 2004, 100, 000 fewer children were living in households with low incomes in Scotland.

The Executive, like the UK government, is aiming to eradicate child poverty by 2020.

“Working Tax Credits have helped put more money into pay packets of low-income workers, and we’ll keep working with the UK Government to maximise benefit uptake in Scotland,” said Chisholm.