Scottish Students Speak Out About UK Child Poverty

"With this week’s budget, the Chancellor doubled down on a failed economic model. The government will continue cutting spending into the next parliament, and earlier this week, it was revealed that the Treasury has asked most departments to find an extra 6% of savings."

"But austerity isn’t working. Having dropped the last government’s fiscal plan, the OBR now expects that the Chancellor won’t succeed in his new goal of balancing the public finances as soon as possible in the next parliament..."

"Public spending cuts mean less money circulating in the economy. Since 2010, the Treasury’s strategy has been to offset this effect by allowing the Bank of England to pump new money into financial markets. Last year, the Chancellor gave the Bank of England the go-ahead to create an additional £70bn through its quantitative easing programme. So while the spending squeeze continues to hurt those on moderate and low incomes the most, new money is being created for the financial sector, benefitting the privileged few."

"And the long-term indicators are still of a slow recovery, from which many people are left out... And while budgets are being cut, the number of people using food banks is on the rise. Around 30% of the population, equivalent to 19 million people (a rise of 4 million since 2008) are living below the nationally-recognised minimum income standard."

http://positivemoney.org/2017/03/budget/