Please help poorer Kids

Activists issue Swinney with 5 demands as SNP reveals round of brutal cuts to balance books in budget.

- PAUL HUTCHEON

MORE than 100 campaign groups have urged John Swinney to throw poorer kids a lifeline by funding a Scottish Child Payment worth £40 a week.

The groups also want the SNP government to back free travel for under-25s and for people on low incomes and disability benefits.

SNP Finance Secretary Shona Robison yesterday confirmed a round of brutal spending cuts in a bid to balance the books.

Swinney will today bid to turn the corner by announcing a raft of bills he hopes will reboot his government.

It will be his first Programme for Government since succeeding Humza Yousaf and he has cited "eradicating" child poverty as his top priority.

Led by the Poverty Alliance, the campaign groups called on him to act in a collective statement, saying: "Too many people across Scotland, including 24 per cent of our children, are having their life chances restricted by preventable poverty.

"The continuing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have contributed to a rising tide of poverty as people struggle to access adequate incomes that would enable them to live a dignified life.