MORE People of all ages are living in persistent poverty lasting years, according to a new government report.
More children, more pensioners and more adults of working age are living with incomes below what is required for a decent standard of living.
Campaigners have warned that the current coronavirus crisis has highlighted how little support is available and how vulnerable millions of people are to poverty.
They state once it is over poverty must never be accepted as apart of normality again.
The report shows tracks poverty over a rolling four-year period and shows that the amount of people in poverty from 2018 to 2018 has increased from 2013 to 2017.
It found overall 13% of people in Scotland from 2014 to 2018were in persistent poverty after housing costs, compared to 12 from 2013 to 2017.
Children were most at risk of persistent poverty.
There were 17% of children living in poverty for the latest four-year period an increase form 15% on the previous four years.
Pensioners in poverty also increased, from 11% to 12% and working age adults increased from 10% to 11%.In Glasgow poverty is more severe with reports consistently showing one in three children in poverty but in the most deprived areas it increases to one in two.
Campaigners said change is needed urgently.
Peter Kelly, Director of Poverty Alliance, said: “In time this crisis will pass and we will return to normality.
“But that normality cannot include one in four children growing up in poverty. The UK Government has shown in the last week that it can take action that is just and compassionate.
“It must now go further in righting the wrong of poverty, by ending the five week wait for Universal Credit, increasing the value of social security payments including Child Benefit, ending the benefit cap and extending employment retention to the self-employed.
“The Scottish Government must also play its part by using its social security powers to their fullest extent, including by increasing the ambition and reach of the Scottish Child Payment in response to the unfolding crisis."
John Dickie, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said: "Whilst not surprising after a decade of UK benefit cuts, low wage growth and increasing insecurity in the workplace it is no less shocking to see that nearly one in four of our children were still living in poverty even before the current corona crisis hit.
“The longer children experience poverty the greater the damage to their health, wellbeing and life chances so it is especially worrying to see the increasing number of children living in persistent poverty. At a time of national crisis these are the children already most at risk from further shocks to family income."
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