Tackling child poverty delivery plan: fourth year progress report 2021-2022 - focus report on households with babies under one

Introduction

Households with a baby under one year of age are a priority group for tackling child poverty in Scotland, as evidence suggests that they are more likely to be in poverty^[1].

This report presents the latest data on child poverty targets and provides further evidence on the drivers of child poverty amongst families with a baby. To provide a fuller picture of families' experiences and to begin to fill gaps in the data, existing evidence was complemented with qualitative interviews with families in this priority group. The interview data provided insights to fill key evidence gaps (with particularly rich findings around sources of support and the cost of living) as well as providing support for existing evidence (for example, around employability).

Details on the methods used can be found in Annex A.

Throughout this report, when we refer to low-income families, we mean families who fall into the bottom three deciles of annual household income.