The report, published by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, the latest in a series commissioned from the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University, builds on calculations which find that across the UK it cost at least £260,000 to bring up a child at a socially acceptable standard of living in 2024.

However, as a result of inflation and the enduring impact of UK benefit cuts, families with children who have little or no paid work still receive under half what they need through universal credit, Scottish child payment and child benefit. Even when parents are working full time families fall short of what they need for a no-frills but dignified living standard.  The income of a lone parent working full time for the national minimum wage covers only 77% of the cost of a child.

In Scotland, the report finds families benefitting from a range of Holyrood policies to reduce these costs and to improve incomes.

The Scottish child payment, universal free school meals for all pupils in P1 to P5, best start payments, free bus travel for young people under 22 and school clothing grants, alongside cheaper than average childcare, can reduce the net cost of bringing up a child in Scotland by over a third for low-income families.

For typical out-of-work families in the UK as a whole, support available through the social security system is more than 60% short of the income needed to meet a socially acceptable standard of living.

In Scotland, the additional support and lower costs mean that this shortfall is reduced to 53%. The research also finds that working families, while benefitting from lower-cost childcare in Scotland as compared to England, are often still unable to meet the minimum socially acceptable standard of living even if working full time on the ‘national living wage’.

Dr Juliet Stone, a Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, who did the calculations for the report, said: “It is clear from our latest analysis that punitive Westminster policies such as the two-child limit continue to undermine efforts in Scotland to improve the living standards of children and their families.

“While the Scottish Government can still do more to help low-income households in Scotland, without change at a UK-level, it is unlikely to be enough to allow all children to reach a decent standard of living.”

John Dickie, Director of the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, said: “This important analysis confirms yet again that Scottish government policies that are already in place, not least the Scottish child payment, are making a big difference to families.

“But costs are outstripping the extra support and the already large gap between incomes and the minimum cost of raising a child is widening. If child poverty really is the Scottish government’s number one priority then this Scottish Budget needs to do far more to plug that gap.

“And if the new Labour government is serious about its UK wide child poverty strategy it needs to scrap the two child limit as a matter of utmost urgency.”

ENDS