Our response to the Budget: Some of the Chancellor’s plans are welcome but some are worrying. Many of the childcare changes announced are a big step forward but the stringent job-search requirements for parents on universal credit (UC) are concerning and overall the package is far short of what struggling families needed from the Chancellor as they face another year of high inflation.
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.
Over 70 charities, unions, faith groups, health professionals and social policy experts have joined forces today to call on the SNP leadership contenders to keep child poverty a top government priority if they become First Minister.
This is an important moment for the government to demonstrate how it will support families on a low income. Investing in social security protects those who need it most. This investment is highly cost-effective – reducing child poverty immediately and leading to improved education, employment and health outcomes, including life expectancy.
As the cost of living crisis continues to hit low-income households hardest, Child Poverty Action Group and the North East Child Poverty Commission are calling for changes to universal credit and benefit deductions rules in light of new data revealing the Government is clawing back over £80 million a month in deductions from families’ universal credit.
The London Mayor’s announcement this week that all primary school pupils will get a free school meal for at least one year is a huge step forward. At CPAG we estimate that 210,000 children in poverty in London do not currently qualify for free school meals because the national income threshold for eligibility is shamefully low. The Mayor’s scheme will go a significant way towards addressing this problem by providing a daily hot meal to around 90,000 of those children – with the other 120,000 being children in poverty in secondary school.
Who is experiencing fuel poverty? What is the relationship between fuel poverty and income? And what is the impact of the mitigations put in place to support people with rising energy costs?
Several government ministers have churned out a line about work being the best route out of poverty, but does it hold any truth? The evidence submitted to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Poverty for its report suggests that this is far from the case.
A family’s ability to get universal credit is often based not on their actual circumstances, but on a fictional version of their circumstances. Welfare rights worker Carri Swann explains.