Church Joins Child Payments Appeal

Tuesday August 16 2022

The Church of Scotland has joined anti-poverty charities, community groups, academics and trade unions in calling for the Scottish Government to do more to help lower-income families this autumn.

In a letter to First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, more than 130 groups urge her government to ‘bridge the gap’ under which families with older children are set to receive less support than those with younger children.

The Scottish child payment, which provides an additional sum for Scottish families on top of UK benefits, has not yet been rolled out to the over fives. Instead, bridging payments are made to provide equivalent support for some families with older children. However, while the child payment has been doubled this year in response to the cost of living crisis, the bridging payments have not.

The letter states: “At a time when further massive increases to household bills are looming, this is leaving a significant gap in the cash support available to families across Scotland. We are therefore writing to urge your government to help bridge that gap and, at the very least, double the October and Christmas bridging payments from £130 to £260. This would be one straightforward and effective way of getting more cash support to many of the households struggling most in the face of the cost of living crisis.“

The letter is signed on behalf of the Church of Scotland by the Rev Karen Hendry, acting convener of the Faith Impact Forum, along with representatives of the Trussell Trust, Oxfam, Save the Children, Shelter, Cyrenians, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, and food projects and community groups from across Scotland, among others.

September's Life and Work is out now.

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