Struggling families would be substantially worse off than they were five years ago if benefits are not uprated with inflation, new analysis from Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) shows.
As more families migrate from older benefits to universal credit, new official figures show there are 2.3 million children in households on universal credit (UC) which are having debt deductions from their benefit, forcing them to live on significantly less than their entitlement.
28% of tax credit claimants who are required to move to universal credit haven’t claimed and have had their benefits stopped and their cost-of-living payments also at stake.
Digital aspects of universal credit (UC) routinely lead to wrong amounts being awarded to claimants – often the most vulnerable - and to breaches of rule-of-law principles, new Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) research finds.
New research from Child Poverty Action Group shows child poverty’s heavy toll on children’s physical and mental health, their education and how they feel about themselves and their futures.
The Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of two universal credit claimants who brought judicial reviews against the DWP after waiting months for their first payments of UC due to them not having a national insurance number at the point they claimed the benefit, despite DWP having verified their identity and determined they were eligible for UC.
Parents typically need to find at least £39 per week for a child’s secondary school education and £19 for a primary-aged child, research for Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) finds.
School governors, head teachers, PTAs and others working in schools have written to the Chancellor urging him to increase child benefit and expand free school meals eligibility to reduce the impact of poverty and hardship on children and on schools. The open letter says schools increasingly see children finding it harder to learn because of inadequate family incomes.
It’s a relief that benefits and the benefit cap will rise with inflation. But this is only the fourth time benefits have risen by inflation in the last ten years and as a result of austerity - that today the chancellor praised - there are almost 4 million kids living in poverty in the UK. Today’s package will not stop the ice from cracking under struggling families.