Alex Salmond urges SNP to ‘shame Starmer’ and mitigate child benefit cap in Scotland

ALEX Salmond has said the Scottish Government should step in to mitigate the impact of the two-child benefit cap in Scotland.

The policy, brought in by the Tories in 2017, as affected over 80,000 children in Scotland and an additional 20,000 children in Scotland were placed into poverty as a result of the benefits cap.

Now former first minister Salmond has insisted it is down to the Scottish Government to “unleash political pressure” on the new Labour UK Government by mitigating the policy in Scotland.

He says this wouldn't represent the Scottish Parliament being used as a "sticking plaster" for damaging Westminster policies but rather seeing Scotland as a beacon of progressive values. 

Back in 2014, Salmond’s Government passed a budget which effectively ended the bedroom tax in Scotland by fully mitigating the impact of the welfare reform which affected almost 80,000 Scottish households.

Salmond, now leader of the Alba Party, has now urged the the Scottish Government to do likewise again to effectively end the two-child benefit cap in Scotland.

He said: “This would show Westminster that there is a better way than continued Tory austerity. If people across the rest of the UK see that Scotland has managed to end the two child cap the same way my Government ended the Bedroom Tax, the political pressure on the UK Government to scrap the policy in their first budget would be irresistible ”

The Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland has previously said that scrapping the policy would immediately lift would lift 250,000 children out of poverty - up to 15,000 of them in Scotland.

The estimated cost of fully mitigating the policy in Scotland would be around £100m, the Alba Party says. They point to the Scottish Government recording a budget underspend of £347m last year to fund their call.

Salmond said the Scottish Government could pay for this by striking a deal with councils in Scotland to increase the funding received for discretionary housing payments.

He said: “The Scottish Government already provinces funding through discretionary housing payments - that is how the Government which I led mitigated the unacceptable hardship of Westminster’s bedroom tax in 2014.

“If the Scottish Government added a further £100m in funding this would mean that, if you are affected by the two-child benefit cap, just like those that were affected by the bedroom tax, you could simply apply to your local authority for a discretionary housing payment.

“If Scotland took this approach we could get money into the pockets of hard pressed families now. It is vitally important to understand that it is not just the third child onwards who is impacted by the cap, it is every single child in a family that is driven to poverty because of it.

“If the Scottish Government move to mitigate the Westminster child benefit cap then Labour’s position across to rest of the UK to continue supporting it would be untenable.”