Parents need support to provide for their children with security and without constant worry. Imagine the UK without any child poverty – a country with all children well fed and housed, feeling secure, and growing up healthy and confident.
In line with inflation, today benefits are being uprated by 6.7 per cent. For the first time in four years, the local housing allowance has gone up, improving housing support for many private renters. But one group will not see any improvement in support at all: around 77,000 families are affected by the ‘benefit cap'.
Our pre-Budget briefing details how best to invest financial support in children to reduce child poverty and give every child the chance to fulfil their potential.
CPAG’s new report shows that the average British class of 30 pupils now has nine children living in poverty; the harder-hit areas have 11. They add up to 4.2 million British children whose parents have too little income to support them properly. Many are in deep poverty. Decades of research have shown the damage poverty does to family life and to children’s growth and development. But why is the risk of poverty high in childhood? What steps should be taken to prevent and end child poverty? What should a long-term cross-government child poverty strategy look like? And what are the immediate priorities for action?
In this comprehensive guide the authors set out the evidence of the extent of child poverty and its impact of children. They explore how our social security system can help families on low incomes, and learn from what other countries have done to tackle child poverty. They then detail the priorities for action: the steps the government must take to help reduce child poverty. The book finishes by imagining a society without child poverty, and the opportunities that would unleash for all our children.
The First Minister said during his leadership campaign that he wanted to see the Scottish child payment rise to £30 per week in his first budget. It is bitterly disappointing for struggling families that he has failed to deliver.
Campaigners at the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland are calling for tax and spending decisions to do more to prioritise hard up families ahead of tomorrow’s Scottish budget.
