FAILING to eradicate devastating poverty across Scotland is costing up to £2.4 billion a year, a new charity report has warned.

Researchers at IPPR Scotland, Save the Children and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found eye-watering sums are being spent tackling the results of poverty which could be better targeted at preventing it. 

The study found between £1.6 and £2.4bn per year – up to 1.5 per cent of Scotland’s entire economic output – is lost due to historic child poverty north of the border.

IPPR Scotland director and report co-author Philip Whyte said: “Every child should have a warm, happy home with food on the table and dreams they can pursue – but that’s not the reality for many.

“Despite decades of rhetoric around preventative investment, we still see a vicious cycle of avoidable cost forcing reactive spending, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

“The prize is great, and the cost of inaction is too high – we quite literally can’t afford not to.”

Health boards fork out at least £2.3bn every 12 months responding to the impacts of poverty, while about £250 million is spent each year on dealing with its consequences in schools, found the report, which said both totals are likely to be “significant underestimates.”

The organisations said struggling households in Scotland collectively face a £2.7bn gap between their current situation and achieving a basic level of financial security, equivalent to 350,000 households falling short by £7,000 a year.

The gap is due to a lack of action from both Westminster and Holyrood on social security, creating fair work and tackling inequality, they said.

Tory and SNP ministers must “recalibrate” what they spend to prevent poverty, Save the Children’s Claire Telfer demanded.

“Beyond the compelling moral case to tackle child poverty, there lies an economic case for doing more,” she stressed, while Chris Birt, JRF’s associate director for Scotland, urged both governments to “use these difficult times to show that desperately needed change is possible.”

The calls came after official figures showed more than 300,000 children are now receiving the new devolved “Scottish child payment” benefit, with almost £250m paid out since its launch in February 2021.

There was a large spike in applications last November when the payment was increased to £25 a week and extended to all under-16s, the Scottish government claimed.