Recession has hit poverty and unemployment harder in Scotland than England

[Legal Beagles]

A new report published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) shows Scotland’s unemployment rate back to 1996 levels, and poverty is now hitting childless adults harder than pensioners or children.
'Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Scotland', is produced by the New Policy Institute, and is JRF’s fifth assessment of poverty in Scotland. It is built around a set of indicators and uses the latest official government data. The report assesses a wide range of indicators including unemployment, education, and health.
Key findings include

• Unemployment in Scotland has now higher than in England, despite having been lower at the start of the recession.

• The recession’s impact was also greater on men’s employment levels than women’s, with a shift from full-time to part-time jobs.

• Scotland’s child poverty rate rose by 2 per cent in the last year during the recession, compared with just 1 per cent in England. However, the rate still remains lower than that of England.

The report goes on to identify areas in the Scottish Government’s anti-poverty programme that need improvement, including:

• Essential services for low-income and other disadvantaged households;

• Living standards for the nearly 600,000 working-age adults who receive out-of-work benefits; and

• Help for those who have jobs but who still live below the poverty line.

The report finally concludes that where the Scottish Government has little direct control, its challenge is how to exercise influence both upward to the UK government and downwards to employers and service providers in Scotland.
For further information read the full report, 'Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Scotland'.


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