AS a former Women’s Aid support worker, I have intimate knowledge of the impact the two-child benefit cap has had on some of the most vulnerable families in the area. The old conservative trope of “don’t have kids you can’t afford” doesn’t exactly wash when you are forced to leave behind everything you have built up in your life for the safety of you and your children.

I am not interested in mincing my words here – in my view, poverty is state-inflicted violence. The impact of poverty is lifelong. The devastating effect on children’s cognitive, social, behavioural, psychological and physical health cannot be understated. It leads to chronic health conditions, shortens life expectancy and widens attainment gaps – all of which has a domino effect on that child’s trajectory in life and the opportunities afforded to them.

In the lead-up to the General Election, Ayrshire Labour MPs Alan Gemmell (Central Ayrshire), Lillian Jones (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) and Elaine Stewart (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) made bold promises to tackle child poverty. Though, to be fair to Irene Campbell (North Ayrshire and Arran), I couldn’t find any statements from her regarding child poverty, so it is entirely possible that she was voting in line with her conscience here.

Despite their campaign commitments, all four MPs recently voted against scrapping the controversial two-child benefit cap, prompting criticism from constituents and advocacy groups.

Alan Gemmell even stated in the Ardrossan And Saltcoats Herald: “It shames both of our governments that no progress has been made tackling child poverty.”

He then went on to say: “Labour will lift people out of poverty by making work pay, giving people a living wage, bringing energy bills down and putting more money into people’s pockets.”

As of February 2024, 7141 children in North Ayrshire – or 29% of the population – live in poverty. This is the second-highest rate of child poverty in Scotland, after Glasgow City’s 32%.

Lillian Jones made a social media post on February 16, saying: “Delighted to speak at #ScotLab24 conference today, reaffirming Scottish Labour Party commitment to lifting children and families out of poverty – in Scotland the SNP are on course to miss child poverty targets by decades!”

In East Ayrshire, figures published in 2021/22 showed that 6308 children are living in poverty, or 25.5%.

Elaine Stewart said this in the same article: “As someone who works daily with children and young people in some of the affected communities, I can assure you that [the] reason I am standing is to ensure that child poverty is high on the agenda on a daily basis.”

“I run food banks and, to be perfectly honest, children and young people should not be eating from this form of support on a daily basis.”

It’s estimated that 24.4% of children in South Ayrshire are living in poverty – which is 4807 children.

Despite these bold pre-election statements, Gemmell, Jones, Stewart, and Campbell all voted against the SNP’s amendment to the King’s Speech to scrap the two-child benefit cap.

Trade unions and child poverty charities in the UK agree that scrapping the cap would be one of the simplest and cheapest ways to improve the lives of 1.6 million children and lift nearly 500,000 children (according to Barnardo’s) out of poverty.

Furthermore, in East Ayrshire, 66% of households in receipt of Universal Credit or Child Tax Credits are not receiving financial support for at least one child as of April 2024. For North and South Ayrshire, that figure is 64%.

It is therefore staggering that our Labour MPs claim to be looking out for the interests of their constituents when Ayrshire is one of the most hard-hit areas in Scotland.

As I reminded Lillian Jones at hustings in Kilmarnock, Labour could very easily make yet another U-turn and implement the Greens’ fully costed tax reforms. They are the only ones with the power to do so.

That they choose not to do so speaks volumes about their priorities.

The truth is that scrapping the two-child benefit would only cost approximately 1% to 3% of the welfare budget. Meanwhile, UK billionaire wealth tripled to around £700 billion under the Tories.

Green parties in the UK set out a fully costed manifesto that proposed an increase in wealth tax along with other tax reforms that would have clawed back up to £70bn per year. To be clear, scrapping the two-child benefit cap would only cost £3.4bn.

So the next time you hear someone from Labour claim that “there’s no money left”, go ahead and remind them where it can all be found – hoarded at the very top of society by the very people who lobby them and line their pockets with what are ostensibly legal bribes.

Let’s be clear – we are looking at the absolute fundamental truth of why politicians and those who seek seats of power continue to betray the ordinary people they are supposed to be working for.

Poverty is a political choice that both the Tories and the Red Tories will choose again and again so long as we are trapped in the revolving door of this Union.
Bex Glen
Ayrshire Greens