A FEW weeks ago, as shadow cabinet secretary for the eradication of poverty and inequality, I led a Scottish Labour debate in Parliament calling for an end to poverty, inequality and austerity.

During the debate, the issue of Tory welfare policy was raised along with the poverty and hardship being caused by universal credit. 
The two-child limit for assistance was raised with the point being made that it breaks the link between need and benefit entitlement. 

On this issue, Tory spokesperson Michelle Ballantyne MSP defended universal credit and other Tory welfare cuts and said that “it is fair that people on benefits cannot have as many children as they like while people who work and pay their way and do not claim benefits have to make decisions about the number of children they can have.”  

I suppose I really shouldn’t be shocked by this Tory Dickensian attitude to poverty, but nonetheless I was horrified to hear it spoken out loud in the chamber.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said the comments showed that the true views held by senior Tory MSPs were “nasty and archaic.”

He said: “The reality is that the Scottish Tories stand behind every blow of austerity and every cruel welfare cut that has been implemented by the UK Tory government, from the bedroom tax to the rape clause. These comments should be retracted and Michelle Ballantyne should apologise.”

When the Tories first floated the idea of limiting welfare assistance to two children, it was thought to be so right-wing off the wall that it would never happen. 

However, on re-election in 2015, they brought forward their plans. A policy that means that people who are poor are not entitled to any more than two children is not only an absolute disgrace but it also takes us into the whole area of eugenics. 

It clearly indicates that, if you are wealthy, you can reproduce as much as you like, but the working-class poor are to be limited to two children or pushed further into poverty if they don’t comply with this Tory edict.

There are many reasons why people find themselves living in poverty, including redundancy or family breakdown. Families then become dependent on assistance from social security. Withdrawing welfare support from a third child who is born into a family living in poverty is appalling and affects all of the children as well as their parents. 

It effectively makes some children in the family less worthy than others, depending on what order they were born in. 

There is also, of course, the appalling so-called rape clause, added as an exemption for children conceived as a result of rape and meaning that women have to tell civil servants personal details that they may not wish to reveal to anyone, not least their child.

One in four Scottish children lives in poverty and, on average, the majority of them live in families with at least one adult in work.  

There are many different measures of how to assess the impact of poverty in Scotland. A recent Citizens Advice Bureau report shows 26.5 per cent of households are living in fuel poverty, which is completely unacceptable.

We also know that council tenants on universal credit have, on average, more than double the rent arrears of those still on housing benefit. 

While the Tory welfare cuts are undoubtedly callous and cruel, with the two-child policy being perhaps the most odious of all, the SNP government is failing to use the full powers of the Scottish Parliament to tackle poverty and inequality. 

Further, while rightly complaining about Tory austerity and the settlement they receive, they are then passing turbo-charged austerity onto our councils which are trying to provide services to help poorer families. Audit Scotland reports a continuing reduction in local authority workforces.

Quite simply, it is not possible to deliver the services our families need with a continually reduced workforce and, for households with the least, these services are needed the most.

Another shocking statistic from the Office of National Statistics last month, showing that life expectancy has stalled in the UK, and in Scotland has in fact fallen for the first time in 35 years. 

This is the Scotland visited by Professor Philip Alston, United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights. 

The impact of the Westminster government’s policies was clear and the initial report did not fall short in condemning the impact on our communities. 

Referring to the Institute for Fiscal Studies evidence and predictions on rising child poverty, Alston said: “For almost one in every two children to be poor in in 21st century Britain is not just a disgrace but a social calamity and an economic disaster rolled into one.”

Along with the other devolved administrations, the Scottish government has retained a crisis payment fund for extreme hardship. 

The Scottish Welfare Fund in the recent quarter assisted over 600,000 households, likely to be only be the tip of the iceberg.
Alston questions the sustainability of this. Along with the dramatic rise in foodbanks, also originally seen as a last resort but now becoming increasingly normalised, there has to be a different approach — one that puts money into households right now. 

Scottish Labour is calling on the Scottish government to pay £5 weekly top-up to child benefit, which it is refusing to do, and to immediately implement its promise of an income supplement for those on unacceptably low incomes, rather than wait until 2022.

The evidence before us tells us this cannot wait. Hunger, destitution and declining life expectancy mean we must take action now.

SNP timidity and managerialism, along with cruel Tory policies and cuts, are failing our economy, our workers and the most vulnerable in society.  

It is only a Labour government, both in Holyrood and Westminster, that will bring real change and deliver policies for the many not the few.

Elaine Smith is Labour MSP for Central Scotland.