This article considers the implications for Scotland if the UK Government were to abolish the two-child limit to Universal Credit in its 2025 Autumn Budget.

A few weeks ago, we announced our exciting plans to celebrate the Fraser of Allander’s 50th anniversary. As part of this, we were thrilled to announce that we are hosting our first economic and…

Government to also end visas for care workers as part of immigration clampdown

Join us for our second webinar, focusing on child poverty in Scotland and its relationship with health inequality.

In this episode, we discuss the latest child poverty statistics, Scotland’s child poverty targets, and where we go from here.

Join us for our second webinar, focusing on child poverty in Scotland and its relationship with health inequality.

In 2017, the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act set statutory targets for child poverty rates – one set of interim targets due in 2023/24, and a final set due in 2030/31. The latest Scottish child poverty…

The UK’s social security landscape and public services infrastructure have been transformed since the Conservatives took office in 2010, initially as part of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The collision of austerity and a punitive approach to welfare reform have seen a drastic and far-reaching hollowing out of provision, which left the welfare state in poor health to respond to Covid-19 and then the cost-of-living crisis. There is growing evidence documenting the impact of these changes on society, and a greater appreciation of the harm caused by inadequate social security provision and under-resourced, failing public services. However, not enough is known about how these changes map onto the experiences of individuals over time. This working paper corrects this, reporting on in-depth research with those at the sharp edge of the social security system. The researchers have conducted repeat interviews with ten individuals for more than ten years, with the most recent interviews taking place during the winter of 2023-24. This research uncovers the extent to which social security and the wider infrastructure routinely fails individuals and their families. It highlights the harms caused by conditionality, and reveals the extent to which repeated fights for entitlement to support can grind people down over time.

Deputy Director João Sousa joins FAI economist Hannah Randolph to discuss our expectations for the budget statement on Wednesday as well as what we can learn from past chancellors’ first budgets and…