About 50,000 children are expected to be lifted out of poverty within two years after SNP ministers raised child benefit to £25 per week.

Shona Robison, Scotland’s social justice secretary, announced a plan to tackle child poverty which includes £10 million a year to mitigate the effects of the UK government benefits cap.

Scotland already has the lowest rate of child poverty in the UK, according to independent research from the Scottish parliament information center (Spice).

Failed UK government policies under successive Conservative leaders and spiraling housing costs in England mean Scottish children are the least disadvantaged in the UK, according to Amanda Gavin, a doctoral researcher at the University of Glasgow working at Spice.

Scotland was hit hardest by Margaret Thatcher’s de-industrialization policies of