Bo'ness children living in crisis

Two reports highlight the growing crisis with low income the biggest single reason for people needing food parcels.

Figures released by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland show that after housing costs one in five youngsters (21.49 per cent) were living in poverty in Bo’ness and Blackness.

Across the Linlithgow and East Falkirk parliamentary constituency this figure rose to 23.06 per cent.

Meanwhile, new statistics from The Trussell Trust reveal that West Lothian foodbank has seen a 13 per cent increase in people receiving crisis food parcels, while in Falkirk the number has risen by six per cent – but a ten per cent increase in the number of children being helped.

According to the CPAG, child poverty means “growing up in families without the resources to ‘obtain the type of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities’ which are the norm in 21st century Scotland”.

A lone parent family with two children (aged five and 14) is living in poverty if they are living on less than £297 per week after housing costs have been deducted, while a two parent family with two children (aged five and 14) is living in poverty if they are living on less than £401 a week.

Falkirk East MSP Angus MacDonald said: “This report is another damning indictment on the Tory UK Government, which can now add this to its horrific record in the treatment of the most vulnerable people in our society.”