A powerful coalition of anti-poverty organisations have urged Nicola Sturgeon to “do the right thing” and double the Scottish Child Payment (SCP) to £20 a week this year.

The group, which includes 120 organisations, children’s charities, think-tanks, trade unions, faith leaders and academics, have written to the First Minister demanding she use her Programme for Government, to be unveiled after summer recess, to raise the £10-a-week payment to low income families.

The letter – co-ordinated by members of the End Child Poverty coalition in Scotland – states doubling the payment now would “signal that ending child poverty will be a defining priority for this Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament”.

The organisations said they had been compelled to write as the Scottish Government – despite all of Scotland’s five main political parties committing to the move at May’s Holyrood elections – had failed to set a timescale for the doubling of the payment, stating only that it would take place by the end of the parliamentary term in 2026.

120 anti-poverty organisations have urged a benefit increase to tackle child poverty.

Nicola Sturgeon urged 'do the right thing' on child poverty