It’s clearly still a disgrace that we have such levels of poverty in one of the world’s most affluent countries. We saw in the last budget, the lack of concern for the poor in the current UK government, in the recent budget, as they used wealth that could have reduced poverty to, instead, reduce taxation on middle and upper-earners. That poverty is less common in Scotland seems due in large part to Scottish government initiatives. This has been confirmed in a report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
https://thoughtcontrolscotland.com/2018/11/21/new-pregnancy-and-baby-payments-to-offset-tory-austerity-in-scotland/

Local MSP Maree Todd, SNP,  has slammed the UK government’s cuts to welfare, after new figures revealed that foodbank use in Orkney has risen by a massive 40% since last year. This significant hike in numbers visiting the foodbank in Kirkwall has seen a jump from 263 in the period April 1 to September 30, 2017 – made up of 174 adults and 89 children – to 368 for the period April 1 to September 30, 2018 – 225 adults and 143 children.
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/14/40-rise-in-foodbank-use-in-orkney/

Professor Philip Alston has been on a visit to the UK. It’s not been for pleasure but for work as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights.  He has toured all parts of the UK: Scotland, Wales Northern Ireland and England and spoken to politicians and those directly affected by the UK Government’s austerity policies. He was shocked at what he found and his report clearly communicates this.
https://theorkneynews.scot/2018/11/17/poverty-is-a-political-choicethe-alston-united-nations-report-on-poverty-in-the-uk/

"Philip Hammond cannot get his facts, or his logic, let alone his fear-mongering right. It’s really rather depressing that a man with so little comprehension of macroeconomics is in notional charge of our national economy. For now."
http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2018/10/31/why-cant-philip-hammond-get-the-most-basic-economic-facts-right/