More children ill from poverty – bleak paediatricians survey on anniversary of Child Poverty Taskforce

A survey of paediatricians – published today on the one-year anniversary of government’s Child Poverty Taskforce – reveals that children are experiencing more severe health issues due to poverty, placing a system already stretched thin under much more considerable strain as well as affecting health outcomes in childhood and later on in life.

As part of the research, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) undertook a snapshot survey to understand how paediatricians view how poverty affects the health of children. The survey of children’s doctors found:

78% said the number of children they see with poverty-related ill-health has increased in the last two years
79% said the impact poverty is having on the health of children is becoming more severe.
96% said poor housing conditions (such as overcrowding or damp) are affecting the health of the children they treat
Among those working with hospital inpatients, 73% had struggled to discharge a child from hospital due to poverty-related reasons in the past six months.
95% of respondents say poverty is preventing children from attending medical appointments (for example because parents can’t take time off work or can’t afford transport or parking), sometimes resulting in the need for emergency care.
99% say poverty is contributing to ill-health among the children they treat.

Commenting on the findings, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham, said:

Poverty is exacting an appalling toll on the nation’s children. Blue lights are flashing at government, and without urgent action the health of the next generation will be compromised. Children deserve better and government’s child poverty strategy must invest in their futures, starting by scrapping the two-child limit.

RCPCH Officer for Health Improvement, Dr Helen Stewart, said:

Child poverty in the UK is at an unbearable level, and as a paediatrician, I am deeply concerned by the condition of children arriving at frontline health services. The responses to the recent survey are heartbreakingly familiar, poverty is not only worsening children’s health - it’s pushing the child healthcare workforce to their limits. This is a crisis that demands decisive action from government.

The upcoming child poverty strategy presents a vital opportunity for the government to make a meaningful and lasting impact. We are urging the government to prioritise the welfare of our children and safeguard our future society. Every child deserves the healthiest and best possible start in life. Helping families cover the costs of attending hospital and accessing healthcare by introducing an enhanced Young Patients Family Fund is a practical step toward reducing inequality and improving outcomes. No child should be missing out on healthcare. Poverty, especially child poverty, has no place in our society.

One doctor reports:

We had a young diabetic patient who kept getting admitted with life threatening diabetic ketoacidosis. This was because she was not taking her insulin at night. We could not work out why she was not taking it – she had no obvious mental health problems and had supportive parents etc. Eventually she told us that the family had no money to heat the house and, when it was very cold, she didn’t have the energy to get up and get the insulin, she would rather stay in a warm bed.

It is clear poverty is affecting not only the day-to-day lives of children and their families but also that of the paediatricians trying to care for them. RCPCH and CPAG are calling for the government to take bold action in the delivery of its forthcoming child poverty strategy, this includes:

Invest in social security support for families, starting with abolishing the two-child limit, to begin reversing rising child poverty.
Unfreeze the local housing allowance and end the benefit cap to help families secure housing that meets basic decency standards.
Help families cover the costs of attending hospital and accessing healthcare by introducing an enhanced Young Patients Family Fund.
Introduce binding targets to reduce and eliminate child poverty over the short, medium and long term.

Children’s doctors consistently highlighted three recurring concerns: the financial difficulties families face in accessing nutritious food, substandard housing conditions, and the prohibitive costs associated with attending healthcare appointments.

Nutrition:

Paediatricians often reported that a shortage of money at home is impacting children’s diets as parents were unable to afford healthy food, resulting in malnutrition, obesity and poor dental health in their patients.

Respondents said:

Families are clearly struggling to afford and prepare healthy food. They are desperate to do the best for their children but simply cannot afford to.

We hear of parents who make the (formula milk) powder stretch for the week. And instead of the usual five scoops, they put in three or four because the tin needs to last.

Housing:

Doctors describe how housing problems are getting worse, with damp in particular affecting children’s respiratory health. Some try to help the most severely ill children they see by writing letters attesting to the impact that poor housing is having on their patients’ health.

I am fed up of sending children back to homes that are making them sick.

I have written more letters to housing providers to ask them to address damp and mould urgently for children with chronic respiratory conditions [in the last two years] than in the previous 18 years of my consultant career.

I do a lot of advocacy work around damp/mould and respiratory health. Those that live in private rented accommodation usually decline support in addressing issues as they worry, they will not have their lease renewed if they ‘make a fuss’ and moves are expensive, and they may end up in a worse situation.

We have had children on chemotherapy die because they have caught fungal infections from damp housing.

[When children live in poor quality housing] you just end up using more and more drugs. For example, in asthma, you can give them more and more anti-inflammatories and get more stronger drugs. But they have side effects and they're harmful. You still may not be able to control the symptoms completely, so they have secondary consequences of poor sleep and then poor engagement with exercise and ultimately a reduced experience at school with coughing and wheezing and missing time of school.

Poor housing was among the reasons preventing discharge:

We are unable to discharge children due to poor housing which blocks beds for weeks

Getting to appointments/visiting children in hospital:

Research shows that the average cost of attending clinic appointments was £35 – including travel, parking, childcare costs and potential loss in earnings. Survey respondents said:

I have seen the extreme anxiety in the faces of parents in poorer areas being told they need to travel to tertiary centre for their child’s treatment.

I have many patients who have to use hospital transport or charitable funds in order to attend the ward for essential treatment like blood products and chemotherapy.

I have had families reschedule appointments because their benefits have not reached their account that week and they could not afford the bus fares for all their children to come on the bus during school holidays (they would have needed to bring all the children as they do not have childcare otherwise).

Some paediatricians said the cost barriers families face in attending appointments led to children ending up in emergency care as their conditions became more severe. As a result, treatable health problems are left unchecked, worsening over time and ultimately requiring urgent medical attention. One respondent said:

Working in a Trust that covers a wide geographical area, one of the biggest impacts on health relates to lack of money for travel. We see more children acutely referred as parents have waited before bringing their sick child to hospital because parents are not able to afford transport to get to an assessment before the child deteriorates.

I work in the emergency department. Children come because they can't afford to get to outpatient appointments, and their condition worsens.

Notes to editors:

Paediatricians from RCPCH and spokespeople from CPAG are available for interview via the respective press offices: CPAG: Jane Ahrends 07816 909302 RCPCH: [email protected].

A report on the survey findings is HERE

The survey was sent to all members of the RCPCH and promoted through RCPCH member channels. A total of 371 responses were received between April and June 2025.