TENS of thousands of parents in work but still living in poverty in Glasgow will get extra help to make ends meet as part of new social security plans introduced by the Scottish Government.
Nicola Sturgeon revealed new support for parents working in low paid jobs with plans for a new income supplement to be in place by June next year.
As MSPs return to Holyrood from their summer recess, the First Minister announced her Programme for Government.
More than half of people in work in Glasgow (52%) can be classed as in poverty according to council figures.
A single parent with two children living on less than £291 a week for or £393 a week for a couple with two children are deemed to be in poverty.
Ms Sturgeon said her programme: “Seeks to make further progress on tackling inequality and reducing poverty. It sets out the next steps in the operation of our new social security system.”
She said she would “step up work to eradicate holiday hunger” to help ensure children received meals during school holidays.
The plans also covered health where she said the Human Tissue Bill would become law next year to introduce an opt out system of organ donation.
The Evening Times Opt For Life campaign led the way in achieving a change in the law to increase the number of available organs for donation.
It should pass Holyrood in the first half of 2019 meaning it will be law before it is implemented in England a year later.
Ms Sturgeon also revealed a raft of plans for improving justice for victims of crime in her programme for the next year.
It includes better support for families bereaved by murder and homicide, increased help for victims of rape.
She said £2m over three years would go to Rape Crisis centres.
Ms Sturgeon said that there would be plans to introduce the opportunity for victims to give an impact statement in court to tell how the offence has affected their lives.
She will also bring forward protective orders to ban the perpetrators of domestic abuse from the victim’s home.
Ms Sturgeon said she would bring forward a plan to eradicate rough sleeping with the Glasgow Homelessness Network will be put in place.
She said work will continue to implement the 70 recommendations of the Homelessness Task Force and will start with
Ms Sturgeon said “Housing First will be central to our plans.”
Opposition parties said they would work with the government on issues of mutual interest.
However they said the plan lacked ambition and was rehashed from previous years.
Ruth Davidson, Conservative leader, was scathing in her assessment of the SNP record.
She said it was a “batch of measures long on spin but short on substance.”
She said of the 15 bills announced last year only two were passed.
Ms Davidson said the biggest let down was education with John Swinney’s Education Bill delayed by a year. She said “at stake is the education of a generation of our children.”
Labour leader Richard Leonard said: “ Eleven years into the SNP’s office where is the vitality?”
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