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Child Poverty in Scotland

As I have made clear to the House, we believe that the tax credits system should be sorted out. The hon. Gentleman’s party has had the time to sort out the system, but it has failed to do so: a Conservative Government will do it. Given the number of times that the words ““simplify””, ““simplification”” and ““simpler”” appear in the Red Book, I do not think that the Government are listening to what is said about the tax and benefits system. I was going to say that ““simple”” appears to be the new buzzword, replacing ““prudence””—although I admit that it would be grossly unfair to use that term to describe the Prime Minister. I suppose people now realise that it was equally inaccurate to describe him as prudent. At its most serious, the complexity of the system has allowed all the Government’s initiatives to pass many of the most seriously impoverished families completely by. There is real concern that many are unaware that they might be eligible for some of the plethora of different types of benefit on offer, or may not have the confidence to complete a complicated means-testing process. It has been stated that"““Current policies are having no effect on the very poorest children and their families””." Those are not my words; they are those of Save the Children’s severe child poverty report of last year. The sad state of affairs even led the Scottish Affairs Committee to ponder whether increasing the level of the old-fashioned universal child benefit might be the only way in which the Government would be capable of getting help to those who need it most. What is the point of having such a complex and expensive system of targeting support as the tax credit system if the bullseye of that target is left untouched?