Louise Dobbie of the Scottish Poverty Information Unit (SPIU), based at Glasgow Caledonian University, said the Government’s key target – to increase the incomes
of the bottom 30% of Scots, was so broad it might undermine existing anti-poverty work. The target, introduced last autumn as part of the Achieving Our Potential framework for tackling poverty in Scotland, proposes prioritising the bottom three deciles of the population and increasing their overall income and share of national earnings. However, Dobbie argues that the band covered by the target is so large that it will distort efforts to reach those in the most extreme hardship. The event will also assess what has been achieved and what remains to be done in the decade since devolution, with regard to poverty and inequality. At present the richest 10% of people in Scotland have the same total income as the poorest 50%. Over the last decade the number of pensioners living in poverty has reduced from 31% to 16%. Key speakers at the event will include Julia Unwin, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Herald Society columnist Bob Holman and SPIU’s deputy director Morag Gillespie. The new SPIU paper concludes that it is questionable what devolved government can achieve in tackling the traditionally high levels of deprivation in some parts of Scotland, given the extent of powers still reserved to Westminster. While policies such as the minimum wage and the level of benefits are controlled by the UK Government, Holyrood will always be limited in what it can achieve, the report suggests.
It is also critical of the Scottish Government for being unwilling to acknowledge that the bottom 30% of the population cannot be made better off without some measure of redistribution.