// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Radical change needed to cut Scottish child poverty, says charity
Scotland is on course to miss legally-binding targets to cut child poverty "by a wide margin", according to a report from a leading social reform charity.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said one in five children was in poverty and "radical change" was needed to put the Scottish government's pledges back on track.
It urged ministers to craft a "much bolder and properly-funded plan to reduce poverty" by rewiring local government, public services and the tax system.
The Scottish government said it had made great strides, with its policies keeping 100,000 children out of poverty this year, but accepted there was more to do.
In 2017, MSPs passed a law requiring ministers to hit four targets, external, including pushing the share of children in relative poverty below 10% by 2030.
But the JRF's Poverty in Scotland report, external found the figure remained stubbornly high, averaging 21% from 2022 to 2025. The UK average is 28%.
Relative poverty means a household has disposable income after housing costs below 60% of the UK median, adjusted for family size and composition.
Overall, the report concluded, 940,000 people in Scotland were in relative poverty – 17% of the population.
The charity said that "despite some progress" the Scottish government's existing plans "will not deliver the scale of change needed to shift the dial."
Reasons for the failure were "complex", it said, but could include UK government austerity, a cost of living crisis, and "a dysfunctional relationship between local and national government in Scotland."