In a paper published by the think tank earlier this week, former social services minister Des McNulty called for the payment to be rethought, with a higher priority given to prevention, place-based interventions and addressing the circumstances and needs of the most vulnerable and poorest families.

Mr McNulty explained that the focus of the Scottish Government’s strategy and plans to reduce child poverty between 2017 and 2024 had narrowed and cash interventions had been prioritised as the main mechanism for achieving progress.

Responding to the report, Social Services Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville said the latest official statistics for 2022-23, which do not capture the full impact of the introduction of the Scottish Child Payment, show that child poverty in Scotland remains lower than elsewhere in the UK – and that investment in key measures, including the Scottish Child Payment, is expected to widen this gap.

According to the Scottish Government, these statistics largely reflect a period when the Scottish Child Payment was £20 a week and only available to children under 6. From 14 November 2022, the Scottish Child Payment has increased to £25 a week and applications have been opened to all eligible 6-15 year olds. The full impact of the payment is expected to be captured in data published in March 2025, covering the 2023-24 period.

Social Services Minister Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “The Scottish Child Payment is unique in the UK and provides unprecedented support to low-income families.”

“Modelling published in February estimates that Scottish Government policies, including the Scottish Child Payment, will save 100,000 children from poverty this year. The payment has been described as ‘groundbreaking’ and is widely praised by anti-poverty campaigners for its impact.

“As a government, we have spent around £1.2 billion mitigating the impact of 14 years of damaging UK government policies such as the bedroom tax, and we continue to call on the UK government to abolish the two-child limit in the face of irrefutable evidence that these policies are increasing poverty and deprivation across the UK.”