FAITH leaders have urged the Scottish government to do the “just and compassionate thing” and commit to double the payment made to needy parents immediately.

In a joint statement, they said that levels of poverty in communities across Scotland “go against everything we stand for as a society” and must be tackled.

The statement’s signatories include Jim Wallace, moderator of the general assembly of the Church of Scotland, and Dr Muhammad Rafiq Habib, convener of the Muslim Council of Scotland.

They argued that there was a “moral imperative” for the Scottish government to do all it can to lift children out of poverty in next week’s programme for government, calling on minister to pledge to double the Scottish child payment for low-income families to £20. 

In the statement, the faith leaders said that the payment was a “lifeline for families across Scotland,” where more than one million people, including one in four children, are living “in the grip of poverty.”

Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison said that ministers planned to double the payment before the end of the current parliament.