Posts

We look back over the past year at CPAG, from our campaigns and research to our legal work.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The fact that more countries have volunteered to be bound by the Convention than any other international human rights treaty reflects the global endorsement of the status of children as right-holders. The UK signed up to the Convention in December 1991, but to what extent is it meeting its obligations?

Low-income families are faced with ongoing challenges in budgeting and balancing the regular costs of living with meeting the need for more occasional and one-off items. But it is not just expenditure that is ‘lumpy’ in this way. Income can also come into households at different times and in different amounts. Research with families looking in depth at money management highlights something of a paradox in the juggling of low income.

A group of children, young people and parents with experience of living in a low income in London, have this week launched a new report, Pushing back: Our take on life in poverty in London. The group, known as the ‘A Different Take’, worked with CPAG and the University of Leeds between January and June 2019, to discuss their experiences of living on a low income and to develop their own agenda and solutions. In this blog post, 15-year-old Londoner Beatrice Franks reports on her experience.