Child poverty reaches record high – failure to tackle it will be ‘a betrayal of Britain’s children’

• controversial two-child limit on benefits a key driver 

Today’s official poverty statistics show child poverty has reached a record high with an estimated 100,000 more children pulled into poverty last year.  

The DWP’s annual Households Below Average Income shows 4.3 million children (30%) were in poverty in the year to April 2023. 

It shows:

• 100,000 more children were pulled into relative poverty (after housing costs). That means 4.3 million children (30% of all UK children) were in poverty - up from 3.6 million in 2010-11.
• 69% of poor children live in working families
• 46% of children in families with 3 or more children are in poverty, up from 36% in 2011/12.
• Poor families have fallen deeper into poverty: 2.9 million children were in deep poverty (i.e. with a household income below 50% of after-housing-costs equivalised median income) 600,000 more than in 2010/11
• 36% of all children in poverty were in families with a youngest child aged under five
• 47% of children in Asian and British Asian families are in poverty, 51% of children in Black/ African/ Caribbean and Black British families, and 24% of children in white families
• 44% of children in lone parent families were in poverty
• 34% of children living in families where someone has a disability were in poverty 

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group and Vice-Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, said:

“In a general election year, nothing should be more important to our political leaders than making things better for the country’s poorest kids.  

 

But child poverty has reached a record high, with 4.3million kids now facing cold homes and empty tummies. 

 

We know that change is possible but we need to see a commitment from all parties to scrap the two child limit and increase child benefits.

 

Anything less would be a betrayal of Britain’s children.”

Liv Eren 20, who grew up in poverty, says:

“As an 8-year-old I couldn’t go on the school trip, as a 12-year- old I was wearing last year’s school blazer and that feeling - that knock to your self-esteem -  never really leaves you.  People say growing up in hardship can motivate you, but what could I do aged 8 or 12?. It’s awful.”

Schools are seeing the effects of rising child poverty every day. Tom Prestwich, Headteacher at Jubilee Primary School in Lambeth said:

The levels of poverty we are seeing in school now and the numbers of children affected by it, are the worst I have seen. This can have a significant impact on our pupils’ ability to learn and on their overall wellbeing. Pupils who are coming to school hungry, pupils who are overtired because they are struggling to sleep in difficult home conditions, pupils who are cold or uncomfortable because of the clothes they have to wear are all at a disadvantage right from the start of their day. We do as much as we can to counteract this. We have breakfast clubs, give out fruit and bagels every day, give out old uniforms and support as much as we can with parents battling for improved housing but it does feel like the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged families is widening. This is happening at a time when school budgets are ever more stretched and our capacity to help and support families is reduced as a result.

Simon Kidwell, head teacher at Hartford Manor Primary School in Cheshire, and president of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: 

“At my school even working families are accessing local food banks and seeking support with uniform and school trip expenses. “We hear from our members how schools are increasingly finding themselves having to step in and support pupils and families, with local authority budgets stretched to breaking point.”

In addition to the rise in relative child poverty (measured as living on less than 60% of today’s median income) the DWP’s figures show an increase in the number of children in absolute poverty (measured as living on less than 60% of what the median income was in 2010).  Since absolute poverty should always reduce over time as living standards generally rise, the increase is a clear warning that not only are more children being dragged below the relative poverty line, but living standards for children are falling over time, their hardship deepening.    

Notes to editors:

Interviews with parents and young people and CPAG spokespeople may be available via the charity’s press office on 07816 909302 

Today’s Households Below Average Income statistics are here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2023

CPAG media contact: Jane Ahrends 07816 909302.