An anonymous civil servant was quoted in the press on 26 March as saying that the coronavirus crisis ‘could be the making of universal credit’. What has happened in recent months to universal credit (UC), which has been seen as the key answer in terms of benefits to difficulties during the COVID-19 crisis?
With Marcus Rashford’s successful campaign to extend their provision into the summer holidays this year, free school meals are back on the agenda. But what about universal provision? The universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) programme was introduced in 2014 in England. What impact has UIFSM had on disadvantaged school children?
Coronavirus has turned the lives of families with children upside down. Many parents have lost jobs or been furloughed and many schools and childcare facilities have largely been closed, leaving those still in work facing the impossible task of balancing work with childcare and home schooling. These challenges are particularly acute for low-income families. This new report from CPAG and the Church of England offers an important insight into the day-to-day struggles that families have been dealing with, as well as their strength and resilience in managing such an array of challenges on a limited income.
To understand the impact of child poverty on the lives of children and families in England better, CPAG, the Child Welfare Inequalities Project (CWIP) and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) conducted a survey of social workers between January and March 2020 to ask them about the experiences of the families they work with.
2020 will almost certainly be remembered as the year of coronavirus, but 2020 was supposed to be a milestone year for more positive reasons. In 1999, in a speech at Toynbee Hall in east London, prime minister Tony Blair named 2020 as the target year for ending child poverty. To mark the year child poverty was to have been ended, academics, policy analysts and practitioners have contributed to a collection of essays for CPAG on effective approaches to tackling child poverty: 2020 Vision: ending child poverty for good.
In response to the COVID-19 emergency, our nation’s rallying cry once again is: ‘We are all in it together.’ Each Thursday evening we clapped our love and gratitude for health professionals and carers in our universal health service – the closest we get to national worship. The mutual support for each other in local communities gives meaning to social solidarity. The same gratitude is due for our social security system – the front line for the care and support of our neighbours’ financial security, keeping them safe, secure and fed. But is this how people feel? And if not, why not?
The government spending we have seen in recent months has been necessary and welcome. But how will we as a country pay for this spending? We need a public debate about who will pay for the costs that the country is facing as a result of the pandemic.
CPAG and the Church of England has produced a new report on the impact of the two-child limit after three years. Since 6 April 2017, families having a third or subsequent child are no longer entitled to additional support through child tax credit and universal credit.
CPAG, alongside Diane Dixon Associates, have been working with schools in London to explore the role of primary schools in tackling child poverty. This report contains an outline of the main project activities, as well as a summary of the key learning to emerge from the project with a particular focus on how to scale up this type of work in schools.
Lots of attention is given to the number of children in poverty but as a society we do not only care about the rate of poverty but also the depth of poverty. If everyone in poverty is very close to the poverty line we should perhaps worry less than when millions of people are substantially below the poverty line. A good way to measure the depth of poverty is the median poverty gap, which indicates how far below the poverty line the average family in poverty is.
