Scotland is a country that believes in justice, compassion, and dignity for everyone. Yet our country can never be just while over one million people – including almost one in four children – are living in the grip of poverty.
As leaders of Scotland’s faith groups, we voice the concerns of our faith communities that so many across the country – especially low-paid women, disabled people, and people from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds - are struggling to stay afloat. We see in our own communities the impact of poverty; with people being forced to choose between paying their rent and putting food on the table for their children. These levels of hardship go against everything that we stand for as a society, and we must put them right.
We all have a role to play, but governments have a bigger role than most. The Scottish Child Payment is a lifeline for families across Scotland, and embodies the kind of country we all want to be. But with child poverty rising in every area of Scotland, it is a moral imperative that the Scottish Government does all it can to lift children out of poverty in next week’s Programme for Government. Every political party in Scotland supports the doubling of the Scottish Child Payment, and there would be no greater symbol of our national mission to end child poverty than taking this action now.
We urge the Scottish Government to use its powers to do the just and compassionate thing. Respond to this moral imperative, double the Scottish Child Payment now, and protect Scotland’s children from poverty.
Signed by:
The Rt Hon Lord Wallace of Tankerness QC (Jim Wallace) (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland)
Bishop Nolan (Bishop of Galloway, on behalf of the Scottish Catholic Bishops Conference)
Imam Dr Muhammad Rafiq Habib (Convenor, Muslim Council of Scotland)
Rabbi Moshe Rubin (Senior Rabbi of Scotland and Giffnock & Newlands Hebrew Congregation)
Charandeep Singh BEM (Director, Sikhs in Scotland)
Madhu Jain (Executive Committee, Hindu Mandir Glasgow)
Elizabeth Allen (Clerk, General Meeting for Scotland, Quakers)
Lieut. Col. Carol Bailey (Secretary for Scotland, The Salvation Army)