Poverty is deepening.
🔎 Our #UKPoverty2026 report was launched this morning.
People in very deep poverty now make up the biggest group of people in poverty, at 6.8 million people.
This is unacceptable for the fifth richest country in the world, and it has consequences.
A lady standing and a man in a power wheelchair pointing at a large poster saying Scotland demands better. The sky is blue and the sun is shining.
A group of people of all ages holding placards that say "lack of action = more poverty" and "you're not listening, listen to the people"
Children holding placards on a cobbled street
People marching through a city with placards and banners. The sky is blue and the sun is shining.
Scotland Demands Better was the breath of solidarity and joy that was needed this weekend! Great to be there with my @jrf-uk.bsky.social colleagues, the End Poverty Scotland Group and our family and friends. Let's keep up the momentum!
📅 Happening tomorrow!
Colleagues @cdbirt.bsky.social @carlaonion.bsky.social @anniemckenzie.bsky.social will join thousands to march across Edinburgh as part of the #ScotlandDemandsBetter rally.
A life free from poverty is possible - and change happens when people stand together and demand it. 👇
Around 1 in 4 children in Scotland are in poverty. On top of this writing are four children running, part of a saltire and the logo - JRF, Scottish Election.
Around 1 in 4 children in Scotland are living in poverty.
Poverty remains far too high, and people are feeling overlooked and ignored by politicians.
The next Scottish Parliament is an opportunity to build a better future for all children in Scotland. 🔽 1/4
Poverty in Scotland 2025 event on Monday 6th October between 10am and 12pm on zoom or 10am and 2pm at St Paul's and St George's Church, Edinburgh.
On 6 Oct, we'll be launching our Poverty in Scotland report
⚙️ Building a Scotland where all children have the chance to flourish is an investment both in our children and our futures
Join us for the latest data and our hopes for the next Scottish Parliament: events.zoom.us/ev/Amsdg9QQK...
🚨STOP THE BUS🚨
We have a new vacancy in JRF's Scotland Team.
We're looking for a Senior Policy Adviser to join our brilliant team here.
Passionately believe we can deliver a better Scotland free from poverty? Then it could be 🫵
Details 👇🕑 10/8.
www.jrf.org.uk/careers
Shaymaa Abulebda, an influential writer & scholar from Gaza, should soon be starting a PhD at the University of Edinburgh [part of which is an internship at Comma]. Instead she lives in a tent in al-Mawasi displacement camp in the ruins of southern Gaza.
www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2...
The Prime Minister told senior MPs today he wants to reduce child poverty this parliament
The most cost effective way to do that is to end the two child limit and take action on the benefit cap - actions that also target help to families in deep poverty. Read more ⬇️
www.jrf.org.uk/child-povert...
Actually around 50,000 people will be pulled into poverty by remaining cuts in Bill - based on Govt’s impact assessments. @jrf-uk.bsky.social previously showed how DWP sleight of hand underplayed true poverty impact – same applies to this latest publication. 🧵1/3
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Govt admits remaining cuts will pull at least 150,000 people into poverty by 2029. But its new impact assessment is again misleading – it could be more like 250,000. (Same reason as why Govt’s previous poverty assessment understated the impact – see: bsky.app/profile/iain...) 2/7
Today Govt confirmed changes it will make to planned cuts to disability benefits. But Govt will still ask MPs to vote for large, arbitrary cuts to disabled people’s incomes that will increase poverty. The Bill should be opposed. Here’s why. 1/7
A cartoon showing tenement flats with solar panels on the roofs. Scotland Demands Better. The march for all of us. Edinburgh 25 October 2025. scotland-demands-better.com
Better homes. Better services. A thriving natural environment. Join the march for all of us. Edinburgh - 25 Oct. #WeDemandBetter scotland-demands-better.com
I want to see non-disabled people shouting about the disability benefit cuts. If you spoke out about trans rights, abortion rights, or migrant rights in recent weeks? Good on you! If you aren’t doing the same for disabled people, ask yourself why.
📢 Join our team! ⭐️
We're looking for an Impact & Learning Manager to help us better understand, evaluate, and amplify the impact of our work in Scotland.
📅 Closing date: 17 June
Full details ⬇️
jobs.savethechildren.org.uk/jobs/vacancy...
"Whoever forms the next Scottish Government has the chance to change what it means to grow up in Scotland. To do so, they must meet the Parliament's child poverty targets." - Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.
240,000 children are in poverty in Scotland.
Every one of them is a reason for all political parties to deliver a better Scotland.
📝 We have published a toolkit to ensure that each party's manifestos is up to the task of meeting the child poverty reduction targets: www.jrf.org.uk/child-povert....
It is possible for the next Scottish Parliament meet the Child Poverty Reduction Targets with political will and bold action. You can find the toolkit here: www.jrf.org.uk/child-povert...
A bar chart showing the current child poverty rate, target child poverty rate and the predicted poverty rate in 2030/31 in different scenarios. In the base scenario the predicted poverty rate would be 19%. Only scenario 3 reaches the target at 10%. Scenario 1 reaches 12% and scenario 2 reaches 14%.
Our third combined scenario includes an increase of the SCP, targeted social security policies to families most at risk and supporting parents into more and better work, reducing the child poverty rate to 10% and meeting the targets.
While both social security and work policies have significant potential to reduce child poverty on their own, it is only through combining these policies at scale that we can reach the targets.
You can see the details of all the policies we modelled here: public.flourish.studio/story/3139770/
We could reduce the number of children in poverty by…
* 60,000 by supporting their parents into work and more work
* 10,000 by increasing take-up of the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) to 100%
* 70,000 by increasing SCP to £100
The toolkit shows how different policy options can reduce child poverty. We model these policies and see how close they take us to the targets.
We don’t suggest one specific policy solution but instead show the scale of the challenge needing to be met.
All political parties agreed to the Scottish Child Poverty Reduction targets in 2017.
240,000 children in Scotland are in poverty.
@jrf-uk.bsky.social have launched a toolkit to ensure that the manifestos of these political parties will meet these targets by the end of the next parliament.
Chart showing that in 2018, the UK was among the worst in Europe for child poverty rates, second only the Greece.
The UK is among the worst nations in Europe for child poverty.
In the UK, 11% of 15-year-olds reported they had skipped a meal in 2022 because there wasn't enough money to buy food.
In the Netherlands and Finland, this number was 3%.
Clip from the times Monday 19 May with headline “fewer than 100,000 will find work through Labour jobs scheme”
The government says its cuts to disability benefits are part of a “moral mission” to get more people working.
But analysis shows fewer than 100,00 are expected to start work by the end of the parliament.
Meanwhile around 3m will have disability & health related benefits cut. 1/4
Comment from our Principal Analyst @rebeccaflorisson.bsky.social on zero-hour contract data from the ONS ⬇️
“Today’s data indicates a marked increase in the use of zero-hour contracts in the last year. There are now 1.17 million zero-hour contract workers, the second highest level on record. (1/7)
Quote card saying "Disabled people who are able to work already find it much more difficult to find suitable work that accommodates their needs. Today’s falling number of vacancies is just another complicating factor that exposes the need to rethink the government’s fundamentally unworkable plans to cut disability benefits. The Government's increase in employment support is expected to help, at most, 95,000 disabled people into work covering just 3% of people at risk of having their disability benefits cut. This employment support is desperately needed to remove the barriers disabled people face as are reforms to boost the quality of jobs through the Employment Rights Bill. But even the best support is undermined by the harsh extent of impending cuts. The threat of widespread hardship among disabled people, unable to replace the incomes they lose out on through work, is even starker."
My reaction on behalf of @jrf-uk.bsky.social, on today's labour market statistics and the Government's plans to cut disability benefits. The threat of widespread hardship among disabled people, unable to replace the incomes they lose out on through work, is even starker.
Whilst grown adults in Reform come after Send pupils as “victims”, here’s 16 year old Niamdh Braid winning her right to a British Sign Language interpreter at school. Guess who the real losers are? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
As immigration dominates the headlines today, including disturbing comments made by those in political positions, such as the suggestion that people seeking safety ‘should be put in tents’…
We have one message and one message only:
Read the full report which digs into the different drivers of poverty across poverty depths and the families most at risk of experiencing this level of hardship here:
www.jrf.org.uk/child-povert...
A bar chart showing the distance from the poverty line in pounds for a couple with two primary-aged children by poverty depth. For this family type in very deep poverty they would be £1,160 below the poverty line every month. For this family type in deep but not very deep poverty they would be £500 below the poverty line every month. For this family type in poverty but not deep poverty they would be £160 below the poverty line every month.
All politicians must understand the scale of the challenge.
For this example family to be lifted over the poverty line, the parents would need to work around 15 extra days a month on the National Living Wage or see an increase in the SCP by around £120 per week per child.
A bar chart showing the distance from the poverty line in pounds for a couple with two primary-aged children by poverty depth. For this family type in very deep poverty they would be £1,160 below the poverty line every month. For this family type in deep but not very deep poverty they would be £500 below the poverty line every month. For this family type in poverty but not deep poverty they would be £160 below the poverty line every month.
People in households with children who are in very deep poverty have less than half of the income needed to reach the poverty line.
For a household with two children under 12 in very deep poverty they would be, on average, £1,160 a month below the 'poverty line'.
