Robert Brown calls for increase in clothing grant

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 6th Sep 2007

A call for action to increase and standardise the School Clothing Grant available to parents on low incomes has been made today by Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown.

Mr. Brown has written a motion for parliament calling for Scottish Government to increase the level of clothing grant and has asked the Government about issuing guidance on the level of grant in each local authority area.

In Glasgow the grant is £47, South Lanarkshire £50, but some local authorities provide up to £65 for the school uniform.

The grant is available to parents on specific benefits - income support, income based jobseekers allowance, working tax credit, housing benefit and council tax rebate.

Robert Brown, who is a former Depute Minister for Education and Young People, said:

"The School Clothing Grant is a great help to low income parents at the start of the school year to help pay for school clothing such as uniform, shoes, schoolbags and the like.

"As every parent knows, these costs can be considerable - and indeed quite crippling for parents on low incomes in particular - a blazer alone can cost £50. And the pressure on parents with more than one child is very demanding.

"The amount of the grant is decided by the Local Authorities. Depending on where you live in Scotland, the grant you receive can vary from £30 to £65. It's just ridiculous - the price of a shirt, trousers and a jumper will not vary that much from place to place.

"It's high time that the clothing grant was brought up to a realistic level - it hasn't really gone up across the board for years. A survey done in 2005 found that the average clothing grant had not increased for 5 years - whilst inflation has eaten away at the value of the grant. A pair of school shoes alone can cost £50, and no account is taken of the need for warmer clothes in the winter. This is a particularly important issue in the West of Scotland with high numbers of children and families living in poverty.

"It is time to look again at this. At the very least, there could be Scottish Government guidance on the levels of grants, but the real need is for a substantial upward hike in the level of grants. The grant is an important, well-targeted help to parents and the overall cost must be modest."

Ian Robertson, 29 from Govanhill, recently helped purchase some school clothing for his sister who goes to school in the East End.

"The clothing grant available does not cover the school uniform basics such as jumpers, ties and PE kits which cost us £59. As we also had to buy trousers, shirts, shoes and other essentials it is only made worse by the shortfall in this allowance. It's quite unfair that if we lived in Midlothian, we'd have received a £65 grant instead of £47"

Robert Brown has lodged a motion in the Scottish Parliament on the issue of the school clothing grant, and is also asking Ministers about the clothing grant with a number of Parliamentary Questions on the issue.