By James Rougvie

A NEW study by a children’s charity has reinforced a recent raft of statistics ramming home the shameful message that many thousands of Scots children—many of whom are in Dundee and Tayside—are living in poverty.

Save the Children has demanded that the new Scottish Executive takes immediate action on its disclosures that nearly 100,000 children are in families struggling to get by on unacceptably low incomes.

This means families with two parents and one child surviving on less than £7000 a year, where Christmas and birthdays do not happen, and where the simplest play equipment is unaffordable.

The official interpretation of poverty identifies families living on less than 60% of the average household income, but charities concede that a standard estimation of poverty is not an exact science. What is difficult to assess is how many benefits some families may be on which would boost their income.

But it is thought that almost three-quarters of severely poor children live in households with no income, while for the remainder, even work is not providing a route out of poverty, according to Save the Children.

A third of households in severe poverty are not receiving key benefits, which indicates there is work in the family but they are getting by on very low wages.

However, there have been alarm calls from the beginning of this year that all is not well with Scots families living on unemployment benefit or subsistence-level wages.

In January, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation indicated that while Glasgow continued to set the benchmark for children living below the breadline, Dundee had four council wards where the percentage of children dependent on state handouts was twice the national average.

Last month, Barnardo’s put the number of children living in poverty at a quarter of a million, with one in three children in Dundee caught in the trap.

Today’s survey by Save the Children says that £7000 a year has to cover essentials such as clothes, food, electricity, gas, phones and other bills—washing, transport, health needs, toys and activities for children.

For children said to be living in poverty this means that one third cannot get play equipment such as a bike or a football, one quarter miss out on going to toddler or playgroups once a week, and one in five cannot afford to celebrate Christmas or birthdays.

Jane Gibreel, the charity’s programme director for Scotland, said yesterday, “This is an outrage. We can’t let these children slip below the radar. They are the children who are hardest to reach, need most help and the greatest investment to lift them out of poverty.

“As part of the campaign to end child poverty, Save the Children urges the Scottish Government to commit to ending child poverty by 2020 and start by tackling severe poverty now.”

Meanwhile, 13 leading Scottish organisations are urging the Executive to hold an inquiry into fuel poverty, which they say is forcing Scots, particularly the elderly, to choose between heating their homes or paying for other essentials.

It is now estimated that in 2004-05 there were 419,000 households living in poverty, compared to 350,000 the previous year.

A letter asking for action has been signed by, among others, Citizens Advice Scotland, Help the Aged and Energy Action Scotland.