Child Poverty

As an amendment to motion S4M-09482 in the name of Margaret Burgess (Child Poverty), leave out from first "welcomes" to end and insert "supports a stronger economy and a fairer society and believes that a focus on household resources, improving children’s life chances and increased opportunities for work are important in tackling child poverty; welcomes the Scottish Government’s decision to follow the UK Government and to introduce free school meals for all children in P1 to P3; supports the extension of free childcare to two-year-olds; further supports the action of the UK Government to tackle high fuel costs; welcomes the £800 cut in income tax paid by people on low and middle incomes; further welcomes the low interest rates for borrowers in the UK; supports an increase in the number of Scottish businesses offering apprenticeships that give more young people the opportunity to have a successful working career; further supports the introduction of the National Insurance allowance from April 2014, which will help smaller businesses recruit new staff; welcomes the 130,000 additional people in work in Scotland since 2010, and notes that the white paper on independence does not take forward either the promises made by the Scottish Government to increase welfare spending by £2.5 billion or motion S4M-05521, which was moved and supported by the Scottish Government, to increase child benefit for people earning over £60,000 per year".