Swinney: 'I find rising child poverty difficult to handle'
It was revealed that at least 80,000 children in the country are living in "very deep poverty," with leading charities calling for urgent action, including an uplift to the Scottish Child Payment.
These figures were put to Mr Swinney during an exclusive interview in Bute House.
He described the scale of deep poverty as a "very significant challenge" for the Scottish Government.
Asked by The Herald if it was a source of shame for him, the First Minister replied: "Yes, it is," adding the country's poverty levels have a "very profound effect" on him.
"I think, in a 21st century country, it is a matter of shame that we have children living in poverty, living in deep poverty and I accept unreservedly my obligations as First Minister."
Mr Swinney took the top job on May 6, 2024 and immediately announced his biggest priority would be the eradication of child poverty.
Prior to becoming First Minister, he served various roles in the Scottish Government for more than a decade, including as Education Secretary between 2016 and 2021.
"When I was asked when I became SNP leader on May 6th 2024 what would be the biggest priority in government and I said the eradication of child poverty - and I mean it."
Mr Swinney said he was "proud" of how his government had tackled poverty so far, adding: "I've done the best that I can in that period and what I see is a falling level of child poverty."
"I'm not for a moment going to say that it is going to be achieved in a short space of time.
"It's going to take a lot of tenacious work to do that."
It was his work as Education Secretary that made the reality of poverty come to light, describing the conditions as "insufferable".
The crisis was exacerbated, he said, by austerity policies, leading the Scottish Government to expand the provision of early learning and childcare in 2021, while also increasing the school clothing grant.
Mr Swinney is clear to emphasise his own family did not grow up poor, adding he was grateful to his parents for a "comfortable" upbringing.
"I had a very ordinary upbringing," he said. "My dad worked and we did not live in poverty. We didn't have an affluent life but we had a comfortable life.
"My parents didn't have a lot of money but they used our money to support us and I'm profoundly grateful for that.
"But I went to school where I rubbed shoulders with pupils who were living in abject poverty.
"So I saw in my teenage years, abject poverty face-to-face and I can see how difficult that was for some of the boys that I was rubbing shoulders with at that time."
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Mr Swinney also credited the Labour government under Tony Blair for having a "significant effect" on reducing child poverty, but said the austerity policies that followed from subsequent Conservative administrations exacerbated the problem.
"There were periods of my political life where I was able to look at the issue and think, well actually, we're going in the right direction.
"It all took a dramatic turn for the worst after the financial crash and the start of austerity and we've seen child poverty rising, and I do find it difficult to handle, to be honest, because I think it's very obvious to me the damaging effect of poverty on children and I saw that acutely in my time as education secretary.
"I want to make sure that young people are going to be able to be supported out of poverty," he added.
"I want them to be able to achieve their educational potential, because achieving their educational potential is going to help to keep them out of poverty in later life."
Mr Swinney recently met with families involved in the Changing Realities project, research from the University of York, working with parents benefiting from the Scottish Child Payment.
The payment has been hailed as a gamechanger in tackling child poverty, with evidence suggesting it contributed to the reduction in child poverty targets.
Child poverty rates in Scotland fell to 22% in 2023-24, down from 26% in the previous year.
But charities warn it must be increased to £40 per week to lift an additional 20,000 children out of poverty.
Parents from Changing Realities told The First Minister they still struggle to make ends meet despite being in receipt of the £27.15 a week payment for each child.
Mr Swinney said the meeting, held last Monday, had an enormous impact on him.
But he admitted uprating the Scottish Child Payment further was not currently on the cards, arguing it would encourage families not to work - a claim that has been vehemently rejected by anti-poverty campaigners.
The First Minister also told The Herald he was "bewildered" by proposed UK welfare cuts, and the UK Government's inability to remove the two-child benefit cap.
It restricts means-tested benefits like Universal Credit to the first two children in a family.
The Scottish Government has said it will mitigate the cap from 2026, but said that would result in funding pressures from elsewhere.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has repeatedly said his government cannot yet afford to scrap the cap - despite pre-election pledges prior to the 2024 general election.
A UK Government spokesperson said: 'No child should be in poverty – that's why our ministerial taskforce is exploring all available levers to give every child the best start in life as part of our plan for change.
'Alongside delivering on our Get Britain Working White Paper to support people into good jobs and make everyone better off, we're increasing the living wage, uprating benefits and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a fair repayment rate on universal credit deductions to help low-income households.'
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