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.
This report focuses on social security issues during lock down, highlighting problems making and maintaining claims without support, difficulties participating telephone assessments and appeals, some PIP awards stopping and uncertainty about whether others would be extended, a number of severely disabled and terminally ill people not receiving additional amounts they were entitled to and a gap in support for some carers.
This report concentrates on the impact of COVID 19 on families living in Scotland and highlights that many families are struggling financially due to inadequate support from the social security system and/or being unable to work while schools and childcare providers are closed.
This report concentrates on the impact of COVID 19 on migrants living in Scotland and highlights social security policy and administration has left some migrants with little or no income during the pandemic.
To understand how the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted children’s experience of learning, we conducted some research through surveys and interviews. We gathered the experiences of 3,600 parents and carers, along with 1,300 children and young people, with an emphasis on the experiences of low-income households. We found that the cost burdens of school closures have fallen most heavily on families already living on a low income.
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.
