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Devolution and Entrenched Household Poverty: Is Scotland Less Mobile?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2009

Carlo Morelli  and
Paul Seaman
Carlo Morelli
Affiliation:
Economic Studies, School of Social and Environmental Sciences, Dundee University E-mail: [email protected]
Paul Seaman
Affiliation:
Economic Studies, School of Social and Environmental Sciences, Dundee University E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The Scottish National Party led Scottish Government has identified household poverty as a key focus for its anti-poverty strategy. The government's ‘Solidarity Target’ seeks to both increase wealth and increase the share of total income gained by the bottom three deciles. The ability to demonstrate the advantages of policy divergence within Scotland, relative to the other parts of the United Kingdom, is central to the government's aim of gaining support for increased powers for the devolved government. This paper seeks to provide evidence on one aspect of the government's anti-poverty strategy: the degree to which Scotland differs from the rest of the UK over levels of entrenched poverty. The paper demonstrates that not only does Scotland have greater entrenched poverty but that the changes in mobility since the 1990s have impacted on Scotland to a lesser degree than the rest of the UK.

Type
Themed Section on Social Policy in the Devolved Scotland: Towards a Scottish Welfare State?
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 367 - 377
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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