News and blogs

News

Child benefit advent calendar

01 December 2020

2020 has been tough for us all, but children in particular have sacrificed a lot. They deserve a Christmas present from the nation. We're calling for a £10 increase to child benefit. It's lost nearly a quarter of its value since 2010. We know parents use it to meet kids' needs. Our child benefit advent calendar will highlight some of the ways child benefit supports parents and carers to ensure all children have the best start in life.

CPAG in Scotland event at SNP conference

26 November 2020

If you are a delegate at the SNP conference, please join our joint fringe event with Save the children and One Parent Families Scotland: Strengthening financial security to end child poverty

News UK Scotland

New universal credit assessment period regulations

16 November 2020

New universal credit regulations come in to force today. This follows our successful legal case concerning people paid monthly getting two wages in one UC assessment period.

Legal News UK Universal credit Work and pay

Read media coverage of CPAG's work

Press releases

View all

Two in five UK children under the poverty line are not eligible for free school meals

03 December 2020

Prior to the pandemic, at least two in five school-age children - 1.3million - who lived below the UK’s poverty line were not entitled to free school meals, new analysis from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows. All of these children are in families in low paid work but do not qualify because of stringent eligibility criteria, the analysis finds.

Cost of the school day Education Free school meals Press release UK

170,000 households hit by benefit cap

26 November 2020

Official figures out today show the number of households subject to the benefit cap has reached 170,000, an increase of 8% since May 2020. Most of the increase is in London. The cap limits the total amount of benefits low-earning or non-working households can receive.

Benefit cap Coronavirus Press release UK Universal credit

Joint response from CPAG and Age UK London to TfL funding deal

01 November 2020

In response to the new Government funding agreement with TfL, Child Poverty Action Group and Age UK London said: “This is a fantastic victory for young and older Londoners, who made a powerful case for why holding on to free travel is so important. It’s right that children can get to school safely, and older people and families don’t have to worry about additional costs at this time of great financial uncertainty."

Child poverty in London Coronavirus Costs and spending Press release UK London

Blogs

View all

Access to justice, one step at a time: Part 2

17 November 2020

Part 1 set out our approach at CPAG to access to justice in the social security field, namely ensuring: access to information, access to advice and assistance, and access to mechanisms for challenging unlawful decisions. Continuing with the last of these steps, the normal route for challenging a social security decision is by appealing it to a tribunal. Sometimes though, the appeal route is not available or, while available in principle, is not effective. In those situations, the route of legal challenge is judicial review.

Benefit delivery Blog Legal Mandatory reconsideration and appeals UK Universal credit

Furthering access to justice, one step at a time: Part 1

17 November 2020

The ‘rule of law’ and ‘access to justice’ are concepts that are seen as fundamental to the proper functioning of a healthy, democratic society. The rule of law becomes perilously fragile if ordinary people are unable to hold public bodies to account.

Benefit delivery Blog Legal Mandatory reconsideration and appeals Tax credits UK Universal credit

Don't Zap the Zip

28 October 2020

The #DontZapTheZip campaign is calling on the government to keep London transport free for under 18s. Olivia Faria, a Year 13 student from Croydon, and Joshua Brown-Smith, chair of young advisors at Lewisham Council, are campaign leaders.

Blog Child poverty in London Costs and spending Education UK London

Contact us

Child Poverty Action Group is a centre of expertise and campaigning on child poverty, welfare rights, and related issues such as fair pay, childcare, benefits and tax credits. Our spokespeople regularly feature on television, radio and in print media.

Contact

Journalists can contact our press officer, Jane Ahrends, or the out-of-hours duty contact on:

020 7812 5216 (office hours)

07816 909302 (24 hour)

email: jahrends@cpag.org.uk

Looking for a contact in Scotland? Visit our Scotland media page.

Press releases

CPAG regularly puts out press statements on the publication of its own policy and research, and in reaction to other events and news stories related to our work. See our press releases.

Expert information

CPAG can help journalists find information for child poverty related stories. See some key facts and figures.

We may also be able to arrange for you to speak with one of our policy or welfare rights experts for more detailed enquiries.

Case study advice

CPAG can provide advice to journalists on finding case studies, but is rarely able to directly provide case studies.

We encourage journalists in their use of case studies to show sensitivity towards parents who wish to protect their children from the stigma of being labelled as in ‘poverty’ and associated risks such as bullying.

End Child Poverty

CPAG is the host organisation for the campaign to End Child Poverty - a coalition of 150 organisations from civic society including children’s charities, child welfare organisations, social justice groups, faith groups, trade unions and others, united in our vision of a UK free of child poverty.

Our press officer also handles queries on behalf of End Child Poverty and we can provide End Child Poverty spokespeople. Visit the End Child Poverty website.