Leading charities and organisations representing children and low-income families have written to the Prime Minister urging him to direct his personal leadership and the full weight of government into reducing child poverty. They warn that if the two-child limit is not scrapped in government’s forthcoming child poverty strategy, child poverty will be significantly higher at the end of this parliament than when the government took office – the first time a Labour government would have left such a legacy - and the number of children in poverty at its highest since records began.
Households with children are at a higher risk of poverty than other households. Large families and single parents are at the highest risk of fuel poverty.
Abolishing the two-child limit is, by far, the most cost-effective way of reducing child poverty, and if done this year will transform the lives of millions of children and families by the end of this parliament.
Child poverty has reached a new record high with 4.5 million children falling below the poverty line in the year to April 2024, today’s DWP statistics show. This is an increase of 100,000 from the previous year.
44% of all children living in poverty are living in a household where someone is disabled. 72% of poor children live in working families. Poor families have fallen deeper into poverty.
