This report presents case studies and analysis from CPAG’s Early Warning System to highlight problems with the information provided to people claiming universal credit.
CPAG's early warning system takes the temperature of how changes to benefits are affecting families by highlighting the most problematic issues which advisers around the country are seeing. The latest update reveals ongoing problems with people being wrongly directed to universal credit and people moving to universal credit and becoming significantly worse off, as well as a number of problems with specific elements of universal credit: housing costs, real time information, access to appeal rights, and failure to adequately meet support needs.
The overall cost of a child over 18 years (including rent and childcare) is £150, 753 for a couple and £183,335 for a lone parent. But work doesn’t pay low-income families enough to meet a no-frills standard of living, new research from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows.
How much does it cost to raise a child in 2016? This annual research from CPAG and Professor Donald Hirsch, Director of the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, finds that parents working on the new higher minimum wage still cannot earn enough to provide an acceptable minimum standard of living for their children. Families with two parents working full time on the ‘national living wage’ are 12% short of the basic amount needed for a minimum standard of living – as defined by the public.
This report shows parents struggled more than ever to provide a decent standard of living for their families in 2013. This is the second in a series of annual reports on the cost of bringing up a child in the UK.