JRF responds to Scottish Government's plan for cost of living
JRF responds to plans announced this afternoon by the Scottish Government to administer a £150 council tax discount to over 1.8m homes in Scotland to ease cost-of-living pressures.
Chris Birt, Associate Director for Scotland at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said:
“By largely copying the approach of the Chancellor, the Scottish Government has repeated his mistakes and provided cold comfort for families on low incomes in Scotland. While many people currently living in poverty will receive this small payment, many more people who are not in poverty will too, meaning the available funds are spread far too thinly.
"£150 will barely touch the sides of the gaping hole in many low-income households’ budgets, many of whom are already facing hunger, anxiety and debt. There was no perfect solution available to the Finance Secretary, but this isn’t a good one. This was a chance to do something different to the UK Government, whose response the Scottish Government rightly called “wholly inadequate” just this weekend, and it is hard to understand why that chance wasn’t taken.”
This news article is part of the cost of living topic.
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