EFFORTS to cut the number of children living below the official breadline in Scotland have stalled, it was revealed yesterday, threatening the UK government's target to halve child poverty by 2010.
However, statistics show there has been a slight drop in the number of impoverished pensioners.
The situation contrasts with the picture across the UK as a whole, where 100,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners were judged to have fallen i
nto poverty.
This is despite the government having made a key pledge to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. Experts say it will have to spend an extra £3 billion on benefits and tax credits if it is to hit the targets.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics for2006-7 estimated there were 2.9 million children living in the UK below the poverty threshold of £226 a week for household income.
This increased to 3.9 million children when the cost of rent or mortgages on family finances was taken into account.
The number of UK pensioners in poverty increased by 300,000 to 2.5 million, and by 200,000 to 2.1 million once housing costs were deducted.
In Scotland, the number of children in low income families remains unchanged for the third year in a row.
Stewart Maxwell, the SNP's communities minister, said the situation was "morally unacceptable" and urged Westminster to do more to fulfil the 2010 pledge.
Child poverty is worst in inner London, where nearly half of children fall below the official measure, compared to 21 per cent of Scots children.
Former MSP John Swinburne, of the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, said the UK increase in pensioner poverty came as no surprise. "Until such time as the government are paying people a reasonable pension, we will continue to have pensioner poverty."
The rise in the number of pensioners falling into poverty is blamed on three factors – the withdrawal of a £200 council tax rebate in 2005, the failure of pensions to keep pace with average earnings and a tail-off in pensioners claiming tax credits, which can boost their basic £90 pension by around £30 a week. But Mr Swinburne, who said academic research backed his call for a £160-a-week pension, said: "There are many pensioners who refuse to submit to the means-testing process, in which they have got to plead poverty before some civil servant."
Mike O'Brien, the UK pensions minister, said the figures were "disappointing" but said that two million pensioners had been lifted out of absolute poverty since 1997.
Figures show scale of the problem200,000
The number of children living in poverty in Scotland.
180,000
The number of pensioners living in poverty in Scotland.
£226
The weekly household income amount that defines poverty.
3.4 million
The number of children in poverty in the UK in 1996-7.
2.9 million
The number of UK children in poverty in 2006-7.
100,000
The number of children that fell into poverty last year.
1.7 million
The extra children in poverty if nothing had been done.
300,000
The number of pensioners that fell into poverty last year.
600,000
The number of children the government says it has lifted out of poverty since 1997.
900,000
The number of pensioners the government says it has removed from poverty.
£575 million
The extra cash that is being paid to pensioners this winter.
