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.
The latest poverty statistics show that in 2023/24 there were a record 4.5 million children in relative poverty (after housing costs), a rise from 4.3 million in 2022/23. This is 31 per cent of children.
'Stealth social security cuts bring neither stability nor security to struggling families and will push child poverty even higher. Growth and better living standards are not achieved by taking money from families with the least. Government must invest in social security support - not cut it - for the most vulnerable, or risk being remembered as the Labour administration under whose watch child poverty continued to rise.'
The package of reforms set out yesterday will result in a net reduction in social security expenditure of £5 billion by 2029/30. This is the biggest cut to disability benefits in a generation, and will push children and families into poverty, and reduce living standards for many.
Reported cuts to disability payments risk undermining wider government efforts to reduce child poverty, new analysis by Child Poverty Action Group shows.
