Eleven major charities have today written to the Chancellor urging her to make a commitment in next week’s spending review to abolish the two-child limit and benefit cap in the Autumn Budget. The charities, including Child Poverty Action Group, Citizens Advice, Save the Children UK, Trussell and The Children’s Society, work with children and low-income families. Their letter warns that the two-child limit has already pulled 37,000 children into poverty since the government took office.
We all want an education system where all young people can thrive and make the most of their time at school. We hope that they attain good exam grades, explore their passions and interests through trips and clubs, and that they develop lifelong friendships through key milestones such as going to their school prom or leavers event. CPAG’s research out this week has shown that for secondary school pupils from lower-income families, this isn’t always the case
The minimum cost of education parents in the UK must meet is now over £1,000 a year for a child at primary school and nearly £2,300 a year for a child at secondary school.
Parents pay at least £1,000 a year to send a child to state primary school in the UK and nearly £2,300 to secondary school – a jump in costs of 16% and 30% respectively since 2022, far outstripping both inflation (8%) and earnings growth (12%) during the same period, new research from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) finds.
What is the evidence on the impact of the benefit cap on children and families in poverty? In particular, how do high housing costs affect experiences of the cap and people's ability to escape it? And why is it so important that the government scraps the policy?
Across the UK, millions of children receive a free school meal (FSM) each day at school. But many miss out. Previous CPAG analysis estimated that, across England, 900,000 school-age children in poverty (one in three school-age children) don’t qualify for a FSM under either the national universal infant provision or means-tested schemes. This new piece of analysis shows how this compares to national FSM schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The analysis also looks at how this figure is broken down by region in England.
England has a much higher proportion of children in poverty who are ineligible for free school meals compared to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland but all nations can do more, new analysis from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) reveals.
This briefing shows how the benefit cap is contributing to homelessness, as families are trapped in refuges and other forms of temporary accommodation and are unable to move on to secure and affordable homes.
