Fact check: The number of Scottish children in poverty rose by some measurements

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that since the Scottish National Party (SNP) came to power in Holyrood the number of children in poverty has increased in Scotland.

“Since the SNP came to power, there are 30,000 more children in poverty in Scotland,” Sir Keir said during Prime Minister’s Questions on July 24.

Evaluation

By one measure of child poverty Sir Keir is correct, but by three other commonly used measures he is wrong.

The facts

There are different ways of measuring poverty. The Government tracks both absolute and relative poverty, and it records these figures both before and after housing costs are taken into account.

A household is counted as being in absolute poverty if it makes less than 60% of the median income in the country as measured in the year ending March 2011 and adjusted for inflation. Relative poverty is less than 60% of the contemporary median income in any year considered.

The SNP has been in power in the devolved Scottish assembly since May 2007 .

In the year ending March 2023, the latest for which data is available, the number of children in relative poverty before housing costs was 240,000.

That is an increase of 30,000 from the year ending March 2007, the year  before the SNP took charge.

However, by other measures the level of change in child poverty has been different. The number of children in relative poverty after housing costs increased by a smaller amount than Sir Keir claimed – by 10,000 to 260,000 between March 2007 and March 2023.

The levels according to the absolute poverty measure are down 20,000 both before and after housing costs to 190,000 and 230,000 respectively.

Links

Hansard, July 24, 2024 ( archived )

Electoral Reform Society – The Scottish Parliament Election ( archived )

Scottish Government – Poverty and child poverty data ( archived page and file , downloads as csv file – see sheets 1, 2, 4, and 5)