Charity says children will suffer from benefit cut proposals
The leading Scottish children’s charity, Aberlour, has warned the UK coalition government that children may be the unintended victims of proposals to withdraw benefits to drug-dependent parents who do not agree to undergo treatment.
The government makes the proposals as part of a UK-wide consultation around the creation of a national drugs strategy.
Aberlour says the idea raises a number of issues that surround any plan to use benefits as a sanction to get people off drugs.
These include regional diversity, availability and variable effectiveness of treatment programmes and most importantly, the range of problems faced by children affected by parental substance misuse, which would be made far worse by the removal of benefits to the family.
Speaking shortly after the launch of the consultation, Aberlour’s Head of Policy said: ‘Drug dependency in families is a highly-complex issue and will not be resolved with a blanket plan to remove the benefits of those who do not agree to treatment.
‘Using the disposable income as a tool to force those who are dependent on drugs into treatment will only serve to impact on the quality of life of the entire family, without any guarantee that it will have the desired effect.
‘It may also represent a false economy as it could serve to destabilise already fragile families to the point of break- up which could then lead to far greater cost to the state, particularly if children then have to be accommodated
‘The sad reality is that whilst many parents with dependency issues are perfectly capable of providing a safe and loving environment for their children, there are some who would prioritise the procurement of drugs over the day-to-day needs of their families if benefits were removed.
“Children affected by parental substance misuse already have a great many problems to deal with. Reducing the amount of money available in the household to pay for food, clothes and toys may only serve to make that existence far bleaker.”
