It Is Not A Choice!

includem has published their latest report – It Is Not a Choice! – which finds that poverty remains the biggest obstacle to implementing children’s rights in Scotland.

The report – a follow up to the charity’s Poverty and the Impact of Covid-19 which was published at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic in 2020 – looks at the current impact of the cost-of-living crisis on families the charity supports across Scotland. It highlights that the situation for families the charity supports has significantly worsened, breaching children and young people’s fundamental rights.

Includem’s research found that:

• 94% of the families who took part in the research have experienced worsening finances, with many having to take on new, or further debt to keep their head above water.
• 71% of the families supported by includem reported they were struggling to meet the costs of two or more essentials (energy, goods, food or rent), ‘half the time’, ‘usually’ or ‘always’.
• 73% of families said they were struggling to meet the costs of two or more basics (transport, school costs, child related costs, socialising and the internet).