A SINGLE mum has told how the Scottish Child Payment has made a “massive difference” and helped fund a life-saving trip to a London hospital for her young son.
Michaela King, who lives in Leith, told The National that when her child Rupert had to be taken to Great Ormond Street children’s hospital for emergency open heart surgery last year, the only money she had to survive on was the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) and the Best Start Foods card.
Two-year-old Rupert was diagnosed with noonan syndrome after he was born and has complicated health needs including cardiac issues. He was given a 50 per cent chance of survival from the crucial surgery, and thankfully recovered well.
King, 33, had applied for disability benefits for Rupert before the operation, but it took nine months to come through.
“Even in that nine months, Rupert's going through all these hospital appointments, that tiny bit like a hundred and odd pounds, that can make quite a drastic difference in the family’s life, and it did when Rupert was in Great Ormond Street,” King explained.
King, who used to be a support worker for children with special needs before leaving her job to look after Rupert full time, said that a mix-up between her previous employer and HMRC over payslips meant there was a period she could not claim Universal Credit for two months.
“That was just before we went to London,” she explained, adding that the NHS asks families to pay for hotels and food up front before reimbursing them at a later point.
King added: “I had no money going down to London. All I had was these little pockets of money that the Scottish Government were giving out, so the Scottish Child Payment and the little money on the card for food.
“I had to survive on that for nearly two months. If I didn't have the Scottish Child Payment that would have changed everything, because I wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
“Obviously that has made a massive difference, and it meant that Rupert could get the health care that he needed.”
“When you're a solo parent and when you are in this sort of poverty line that us parents that own this situation are in, you learn to adapt,” she said.
“I budget totally differently now than what I budgeted previously, when I didn't have Rupert and I had a job with a lot of money. My lifestyle has completely changed.”
Asked how life with Rupert would look without having access to the Scottish Child Payment, King said: “I think we probably would lose out on stuff. We wouldn't do as much.
“We probably wouldn't be taking trips out or buying the toys that fit around Rupert’s needs. He likes spin toys.
“The Scottish Child payment has probably paid for most of his spinning toys. We would have had to adapt differently.”
The SCP is currently £27.15 a week, while the UK Government’s Child Benefit, also available for those living in Scotland to claim, is £26.05 a week.
King, who is originally from England but had Rupert in Scotland, said that there is better support north of the border. However, she feared that the payment is not keeping up with how fast prices are rising.
“The economy is getting harder and harder to live by. Food prices are going up, fuel prices are going up, transport prices are going up, and the Scottish Child Payment, I think it rose by like two or three pounds this year - that’s not going to cover my bananas.
“You are better off up here, but it's still hard. You still have to budget even on the amount that you do get.
King added that the looming disability cuts in Westminster had given her “sleepless nights” as she fears of the impact on Rupert’s future.
She added: “I keep thinking, maybe it won't affect us because he's just a baby. Surely they wouldn't take money away from children?”
While King aims to go back to work, finding affordable specialised childcare for Rupert has proven difficult.
“You get anxious about it, you don’t want to claim all these things,” she added.
“I think there is still this stigma of claiming things, and I think could I do it with just going to work? No, I definitely couldn't.”
Satwat Rehman, chief executive of One Parent Families Scotland (OPFS) said that the SCP is a “vital lifeline” for single-parent households, a third of whom are living in poverty.
“But it does not yet go far enough,” she said. “The Scottish Child Payment and benefit cap mitigation have already provided much needed relief to many struggling families.”
Rehman added: “Yet, with 23% of children in Scotland still living in poverty, and the rate rising to 36% for children in single-parent families, it’s clear that further urgent and targeted action is needed to meet the statutory target of 10% of Scotland's children living in relative poverty by 2030.”
