Improving our understanding of child poverty in rural and island Scotland: research

2 What is the issue?

Drivers of child poverty in rural and island contexts

Scottish Government (2018b) sets out three direct drivers of child poverty: income from employment, costs of living and income from social security/benefits in kind.

It is possible to identify key characteristics of rural and island life that may amplify these drivers (discussed in Scottish Government, 2021a; Shucksmith et al., 2022):

Income from work and earnings

• Volatile and unpredictable rural incomes.
• Limited access to training and skills development.
• Reliance on private vehicles.
• Lack of local and flexible childcare.
• Rural gender pay gap.

Costs of living

• Household energy costs can be unaffordable, with higher levels of fuel poverty in remote rural areas.
• Additional minimum living costs in remote rural areas (add 15-30%).
• Unaffordable housing and/or poor housing condition.

Income from social security

• Lower take-up of welfare support due to stigma, lack of awareness/support and challenges with the welfare system.

It is estimated that 15% of rural residents in Scotland (170,000 people) are in relative poverty, compared to 20% (850,000) of urban residents. There are lower levels of child poverty in rural areas compared to urban areas, with 19% of rural children living in relative poverty, compared with 26% of urban children (Scottish Government, 2021a).

In an analysis of Scottish data collected in the Poverty and Social Exclusion in the UK survey, poverty was found to be highest in large urban areas and lowest in remote towns, with remote rural areas tending to show higher rates of poverty than remote towns (Bailey et al, 2016).

Rural employment rates often compare favourably with urban areas, although it is well-known that rural incomes can be volatile and precarious, with unpredictable incomes from seasonal/casual work and zero-hours contracts characteristic not only of land-based and tourism employment but extending across many sectors of rural economies. Several research studies have reported the contribution to child poverty of several barriers to employment faced in rural and island areas by those with children. These include: “specific rural barriers such as greater distances to employment/childcare providers, limited access to social housing and more expensive transport costs.” (Glass, 2020, p7).

Nonetheless, where the head of household income is less than £170 per week the likelihood of poverty among rural households is significantly lower than in non-rural households where the head of household also has a low employment income (Wilson, 2016). This suggests alternative household income contributions in rural areas, perhaps other members of the household contributing to the household income ‘pot’ to a greater extent than their non-rural counterparts, sufficient to bring the total income above the poverty line. Rural incomes are also highly polarised, with the disparity between men’s and women’s earnings in rural areas greater than the national average (Scottish Government, 2018c; Atterton et al, 2019). Part-time work tends to be low paid and below workers’ skill levels and qualifications, with under-employment and limited opportunities for career progression (McKendrick et al, 2011; Shucksmith et al, 2022).

This volatility of rural incomes presents a range of challenges for those who need to claim welfare support, including payment delays and overpayments, distances to travel for medical assessments and feelings of stigma (Shucksmith et al, 2022). These and other factors lead to lower claimant rates in rural areas.

A lack of local and flexible childcare is a well-documented barrier to rural parents looking for employment (particularly lone parents), which can make the cost of childcare unaffordable for those who find work (Glass et al, 2020; Scottish Government, 2021b). A lack of suitable childcare also creates segregation in rural communities in terms of how it affects opportunities, with those parents who are able to secure care more likely to remain in/re-enter the labour market. The Rural Lives study also reports that:

“Employment to suit school hours remains uncommon. This appears to make it more likely in rural areas that people with young families have multiple jobs so that parents can work at different times of the day to accommodate childcare and/or other caring needs.” (Shucksmith et al., 2021, p.9)

Other characteristics of rural and island life shape the experience of poverty in these communities and increase the likelihood of children experiencing the impacts of poverty (for an in-depth, critical review of evidence relating to children’s experiences, see Glass et al., 2020).

Additional minimum living costs for households in remote rural Scotland typically add 15-30% to a household budget, compared with urban areas of the UK (Scottish Government, 2021c). Additional costs are even higher in some areas, with significant impacts on financial and psychological wellbeing in Shetland, for example (Stone and Hirsch, 2020). The costs of food and transport fuel are particularly high. Household energy costs can also be unaffordable: a third of households in remote rural areas were in extreme fuel poverty in 2019 compared to 11% of households in the rest of Scotland (Scottish Government, 2021a). Access to affordable and good quality housing is also a long-standing issue. All these issues contribute to the ‘double disadvantage’ of being on a low income in a rural area.

It is generally agreed that tackling generic or structural challenges associated with living in a rural or island community will help to alleviate child poverty in these areas (Glass et al, 2020). However, there is a need to take stock of existing data and other information about child poverty to develop policy interventions that will most effectively meet the needs of children in Scotland’s diverse rural and island communities.