The First Minister has announced that low-income families will be set for a financial boost before the festive season this year.
This news was announced as a key policy of her latest speech at the Scottish National Party conference in Aberdeen. Glasgow Times reports that the police will double the cash paid out to families of nearly 150,000 children.
Nicola Sturgeon said that the Scottish Government is set to double the bridging payments made to families where children qualify for free school meals. The payments have been worth £130 so far, but will jump to £260 in the next instalment, according to Nicola's statement.
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Ms Sturgeon said: "Rather than looking forward to Christmas, too many families will be dreading it. Dreading it because they don’t know if they can afford to heat their homes or even pay for food."
Nicola said that over the last year, the "bridging payments" have been made to the value of £130. She also noted that these payments have gone to "children and young people in receipt of free school meals, but who don’t qualify for the Child Payment."
The First Minister announced: "The final instalment - ahead of the extension of the Child Payment and due in the next few weeks - will not be £130. We will double it to £260. That will help put food on the Christmas table for families of 145,000 children and young people.”
She added: “I hope this investment of almost £20m will bring a bit of Christmas cheer to those who need it most.” This announcement has been strongly welcomed by anti-poverty campaigning groups in particular.
John Dickie, director of the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, said: “This is really good news for thousands of families of school-aged children who are struggling to make ends meet in the face of soaring food and fuel prices. An extra £130 makes a real difference when cupboards are bare, debts are mounting and children’s wellbeing is suffering.
“More support will inevitably be needed in the coming months from every level of Government, but the First Minister has heard the calls, listened to the evidence and acted in the face of extraordinary cost of living pressures."
In her closing speech at the conference in Aberdeen, the First Minister has rallied the SNP ahead of the Supreme Court hearing on whether a second independence referendum is within the powers of the Scottish Government - without the need for approval from the UK Government.
She said that the cost-of-living crisis was a reason for independence not an argument against it. With the UK Government under the control of Liz Truss, Nicola said Liz "caused mayhem in the markets with her decision to borrow billions of pounds to fund tax cuts for the richest."
Nicola said that the UK Government was creating "borrowing to be repaid by eye-watering austerity cuts and a raid on the incomes of the poorest." The First Minister deems these actions as "unconscionable".
Ms Sturgeon posed a question she said is often put to her: "Why propose a referendum in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis?" She said: "The answer is in the question. The answer is the cost-of-living crisis.
“It is the Tory response to it. It is the financial chaos. And it is the damage of Brexit. All of that is laying bare, each and every day, the harm being done to people in Scotland because we are not independent.”
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