Fife reaffirms its commitment to challenge poverty

Fife has reaffirmed its commitment to challenge poverty across the region as part of this week’s national Challenge Poverty week.

The Scotland-wide campaign is designed to highlight that too many people continue to live with the constant pressure of living in poverty and that we must make changes so that everyone has enough.

Fife Council Co-Leader, Councillor David Ross said: “Sadly poverty isn’t something new and the challenge has only been made bigger by Covid. The pandemic has had an enormous impact on Fife’s communities and has thrown many families into hardship with their money needing to stretch further. It’s also made Fife’s existing health inequalities worse, with less well-off families more likely to be impacted and more likely to be missing opportunities to learn. This can and must change.

“As a council we’re committed to making Fife fairer for everyone so, using our experience of the pandemic, we have refreshed the Plan for Fife. The updated Plan sets out the recovery and renewal priorities, including what we’ll do to tackle poverty and prevent crisis.

Fife Council Co-Leader, Councillor David Alexander added: “Too many people in our society are locked in the grip of poverty, restricted from playing a full role in society.

“While poverty is about people not having the income needed to thrive in their lives, in practice this also drives a range of related issues which, in themselves, can keep the poverty cycle going.

“Lack of funds, difficulties in accessing services, and other issues can lead to crisis, where people need short-term help. However, we recognise that solutions need to take a longer-term preventative approach. We’ve set out a number of ways to address and challenge poverty. These include making it easier for people to access council services, removing barriers such as cost, so that people can take part in activities and jobs so they can maximise their income and introducing sustainable approaches to basics such as food and welfare.”

For more information about the help available visit www.fife.gov.uk/challengepovertyweek