Scotland

The annual Benefits for Students in Scotland Handbook is the most comprehensive guide to benefits and tax credits for students in Scotland.

It includes a quick guide to the grants and loans available for further and higher education in Scotland, and clear, easy-to-use information on students’ benefit entitlement and how this is affected by their student income as well as the introduction of universal credit and new Scottish social security benefits. Also included is information on how benefits are affected in vacations and if a student takes time out from their course.

Fully updated for the 2021/22 academic year, the book is an invaluable resource for anyone who advises students in Scotland. It is fully cross-referenced to the law and includes easy-to-use checklists and examples.

The annual Children’s Handbook Scotland provides a complete guide to the benefits and tax credits that apply when children are living away from their parents, including children in kinship or foster care, children looked after by the local authority, and children at residential school, in residential care or in hospital.

It covers entitlement when children are living away from home, how local authority payments affect carers’ benefits and tax credits, and how to challenge decisions. Fully referenced to legislation and caselaw, and with easy-to-use checklists and examples, this latest edition remains an essential guide for anyone working with families and children in Scotland.

Published in association with Glasgow Caledonian University SPIRU and WiSE Centre, The Poverty Alliance and I-SPHERE, Heriot-Watt University​

Poverty in Scotland 2021: towards a 2030 without poverty.

Scotland has set statutory targets towards ending child poverty by 2030, and the Scottish government has made wider commitments to eradicating poverty and hunger altogether. Poverty in Scotland 2021 provides a comprehensive but accessible state of the nation assessment of how far the country has come in achieving these goals, and what is now needed to make them a reality.

The book draws on the latest data and evidence to give an overview of the scale, nature and extent of poverty, and the impact it has on people and communities. Chapters explore:

How poverty in Scotland is defined and measured
What causes poverty in Scotland, and whether that poverty is falling
How policies and processes are working to tackle poverty
The extent to which the lived experience of poverty is shaping policy

Over a million of Scotland’s citizens, and nearly one in four of its children, were still living in poverty before the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic struck. This indispensable book brings together contributions from leading experts, academics and practitioners to set out how various policy tools, from public finance, economic development and social care to social security, employment and transport can now be utilised to ensure the ambition of a Scotland free of poverty is realised.

Poverty in Scotland 2021 is the latest in a series providing an essential resource for politicians, policy makers, teachers, community activists, service providers, academics, students and all those working to end poverty.