In Scotland, 87 of the 90 LHA rates are expected to fall below this level, with estimates suggesting around 45,000 households, including approximately 31,000 children, could be impacted.
Clare Adamson, MSP for Motherwell and Wishaw(Image: Clare Adamson MSP)
A Lanarkshire MSP has challenged the Labour UK Government to take urgent action on child poverty, warning that their continued freeze on Local Housing Allowance (LHA) is pushing more families into hardship.
It comes as First Minister John Swinney announced a further £5.8 million to help prevent child poverty, with child poverty rates in Scotland already the lowest in the UK.
Despite rising rents, the Labour Government has frozen LHAs – one of the most vital support systems for low-income renters.
In Scotland, 87 of the 90 LHA rates are expected to fall below this level, with estimates suggesting around 45,000 households, including approximately 31,000 children, could be impacted.
Analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that half of people receiving housing support are already living below the poverty line, while permanently linking LHA to the 30th percentile of local rents could lift 75,000 children out of poverty.
Motherwell and Wishaw MSP Clare Adamson said: “By freezing Local Housing Allowance rates while rents continue to rise, the Labour Party is actively pushing more families into poverty and homelessness.
“Thousands of households across Scotland, including families here in Motherwell and Wishaw, will feel the impact of this decision – worsened by the Labour Party’s inability to bring the cost of living crisis under control with energy bills spiralling.
“The SNP is doing all that it can within devolved powers to mitigate against decisions taken at Westminster, but that work is being undermined by the Labour Party’s refusal to provide adequate housing support to those who need it most.
“The Labour Party must act now by ending the freeze and ensuring housing support reflects the real cost of renting. Anything less risks deepening the child poverty crisis facing families across these islands.”
Chancellor Rachel Reeves opted to keep LHA rates frozen at the autumn budget despite pleas from housing, homelessness and rent campaigners to peg housing benefit to record-high rents.
Jeremy Hunt was the last chancellor to hike rates in 2024 at the cost of £1.2billion to the Treasury.
Reeves’ decision not to do the same saved the government £1.5bn in the last year, according to analysis from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
In a letter to UK Housing Secretary Steve Reed in February, Scotland’s Housing Secretary Mairi McAllan said freezing LHA “makes it harder for low-income households to access and sustain tenancies in the private rented sector” as she urged the Labour Government to reconsider.
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