Devolution and Entrenched Household Poverty: Is Scotland Less Mobile?

The Scottish National Party led Scottish Government has identified household poverty as a key focus for its anti-poverty strategy. The governmentʹs ʹSolidarity Targetʹ seeks to both increase wealth and increase the share of total income gained by the bottom three deciles. The ability to demonstrate the advantages of policy divergence within Scotland, relative to the other parts of the United Kingdom, is central to the governmentʹs aim of gaining support for increased powers for the devolved government. This paper seeks to provide evidence on one aspect of the governmentʹs anti-poverty strategy: the degree to which Scotland differs from the rest of the UK over levels of entrenched poverty. The paper demonstrates that not only does Scotland have greater entrenched poverty but that the changes in mobility since the 1990s have impacted on Scotland to a lesser degree than the rest of the UK.