Latest news with #ChangingRealities
The Herald Scotland
02-05-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Mother feels 'undeserving' after John Swinney child payment response
He again told The Herald any further increase would risk reducing the incentive for moving parents into the labour market. But Vongayi, a single mother, warned these comments make parents in her situation feel "undeserving" of support. Her comments follow The Herald's call - backed by 23 leading charities - for the Scottish Child Payment to be uprated to £40 per week, for each child. The increase would cost approximately £261 million. Vongayi is a single parent to three children, aged 16, 14 and four. She works 16 hours per week for a Glasgow-based charity offering support to women from migrant backgrounds with childbirth, pregnancy and early parenthood. Read more: How sincere is John Swinney in his mission to eradicate child poverty? 'Committed to going further': Swinney responds to The Herald's child poverty campaign Does the Scottish Child Payment work and how much would the £40 increase cost? Her youngest also has autism, meaning she is unable to take on additional working hours to care for her son. She said: "Taking action to support low income families is vital. It means recognising both the additional costs children bring and the barriers many families face when trying to increase their income. "In my case, my four year old is autistic, which limits the numbers of hours I can work and, therefore, the income I can earn. "I'm often asked why I only work 16 hours a week, and once, someone said to me, 'once you get yourself into this dependency culture, you become too comfortable'." She added: "Society doesn't understand that I've had to turn down extra hours and promotions because of my autistic son's needs. "Families like mine are often seen as undeserving." Vongayi met the First Minister last week as part of the Changing Realities programme, a collaboration of parents and carers, researchers and the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG). After the meeting, Mr Swinney told The Herald the stories of hardship he heard had a "profound" impact on him. In responding to The Herald's open letter, the First Minister said the Scottish Government was "committed" to going further on tackling child poverty. Read more: Exclusive: The staggering cost of poverty and hardship on Scotland's economy revealed 'Matter of shame': Swinney opens up on the toll of tackling child poverty in Scotland Campaign: The Herald unites with 23 charities to push First Minister on child poverty The Programme for Government, where the Scottish Government sets out its financial agenda, will take place next week in Holyrood, with hopes it will lead to progress on the Scottish Child Payment. However, following First Minister's Questions (FMQs), Mr Swinney said: "The government has got to make a number of carefully balanced decisions about the use of public finance and about support to families. "I think the level at which the Scottish Child Payment is set at currently delivers the impact of the Scottish Child Payment that we think is possible whilst maintaining the incentivisation of employment. "And that's a very careful balance the government has got to strike and I know people want us to go further and I understand that entirely but we've also got a range of other ways to tackle child poverty, around for example, early learning and childcare, around family support, all of which are assisting. "I want to see combined measures having an effect in reducing child poverty in Scotland." Vongayi said: "While the Scottish Child Payment offers some relief, its not enough to meet the rising cost of living and the additional pressures we face. "I urge the Scottish Government to increase the payment - an extra £10 per child per week would make a big difference. "For families like mine, it would mean access to healthier food and the ability to buy proper school wear, including the nice shoes my children always wish for but which always seem out of reach." She added that the impact of growing up in poverty is starting to take its toll on her children. "We are classified as a low-income household, and this has a significant impact on our quality of life," she said. "My children notice the difference — it means no holidays, no new shoes, and no access to many of the things their peers enjoy. It breaks my heart to hear my teenagers ask me if we are poor and when things will get better. "My son recently turned sixteen, and I can see him putting pressure on himself to find a job instead of focusing on his National 5 exams. "This will affect how well he performs in school. He's being forced to grow up too quickly, dealing with financial worries and adult responsibilities when he's still a child."
The Independent
19-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
I'm a single mother with MS on benefits – Labour's welfare cuts will ruin us
We've heard much about disabled people in the news these past weeks as we waited for the government to announce their heavily trailed benefit cuts. I'm one of those who come up in the figures of disabled people in receipt of social security support. I have multiple sclerosis and am unable to work because of my poor health. I am also a single mum to two teenagers, both of whom have additional needs. My daughter, 18, is autistic, and my son, 18, is autistic and has ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia. That is my every day; coping with my own health problems while trying to look after my children, and advocate for their additional needs to be better met. The news that the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall is cutting disability benefits payments has stunned me. The process of claiming disability benefits is already such a humiliating and unpleasant experience. Claiming Personal Independence Payments (PIP), which the government says will now have its eligibility tightened, is dehumanising. It is anything but an easy benefit to claim. Liz Kendal has said she will not only be cutting payments but also making more frequent assessments of people's ability to work. Can we really be reassessed more than we already are? I have been unable to work for the last seven years. During that time, I have had an assessment nearly every year. Kendall also announced cuts to the health element of Universal Credit; often called the Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity Group. I get these payments, which will now be cut in real terms and reduced for new claimants. All this makes me feel hopeless. I already put every penny I have into the children and their needs and I can't tighten my belt any further. There will be so many families that will be pushed further into poverty because of these decisions. I would urge the government to think again. Last week, I and others who take part in the Changing Realities low-income study, met with the education secretary to talk about the need to provide more support to families struggling with the dual challenges of life on a low income while bringing up children with special educational needs. Families like mine need more support and compassion; not these cuts to the support on which we rely. There is so much that they could do to make things better and what was announced today will only make things worse. Take the assessments to determine eligibility for disability benefits support. These are currently not carried out by medically trained staff. My last assessment was over Zoom and lasted 3.5 hours. I was grilled mercilessly and brought to tears several times. The experience was humiliating and traumatic. I had to go into great detail about my illness, my chemotherapy and my domestic violence trauma. To make this assessment process – which needs to be radically overhauled – more frequent seems horrific. Where is the empathy? No one wants to be this poorly, with constant hospital appointments. People with disabilities deserve to be treated as members of society, not as scroungers, whose handouts are to be cut back again, and again and again. A simple solution to assessment would be to judge eligibility by talking to the doctors and consultants who have intimate knowledge of the claimant's disabilities. Let's make the assessment more personal by getting information from people who genuinely know and assist us, rather than making us try and score points to get an ever smaller sum of money. We must also ask why the government's efforts to balance its books are focused on people in poverty and those people with disabilities. This scrabbling to save money from people already struggling will only plunge them further into poverty as a result. Perhaps the government might look to bigger fish for savings. The big companies who don't pay tax. Or the MPs who claim such high expenses. I don't have the answers – but I do know that I feel criminalised. This extra stress will massively impact my mental health. I will be unable to support myself and my children. Will I be forced into work? When I am in such massive pain and have days I can't leave my bed? I am demoralised and dehumanised. This simply cannot go on. Gabriel Kennedy is an alias. Gabriel is a participant in Changing Realities, a collaboration between almost 200 parents and carers on low income, researchers at the Univesity of York and Child Poverty Action Group.
