What is Poverty?
Poverty is technically defined as when a person's household income (adjusted for the size and composition of the household) is less than 60% of the UK average income.
The Government also uses a measure to assess fuel poverty, based not only on income but also on fuel prices and the energy efficiency of homes.
We recognise that poverty is much more than just low income. The factors that generate poverty are wide-ranging and encompass many aspects of day-to-day life such as health, housing, educational attainment, employability and access to services.
That is why our work on tackling poverty spans all of the Scottish Government which includes Education and Enterprise, Justice and Communities and Health and Well-Being.
We believe that there needs to be a fundamental rethink about how we view and tackle poverty, inequality and deprivation.
We have made advances in tackling poverty and we need to build upon these. We also need to learn from those aspects that were less successful. We need to deliver a more meaningful and attainable set of outcomes for those individuals, families and communities across Scotland who experience poverty, inequality and deprivation on a daily basis.
We need additional support to overcome structural and institutional barriers that prevent people from escaping and sustaining themselves from poverty.