As food bank use continues to soar to unprecedented levels, the Independent Food Aid Network (IFAN) wants to see the UK without the need for charitable food aid, where adequate and nutritious food is affordable to all. But what is driving increasing demand for food aid? What is the problem with responding to food insecurity this way? What role do cash payments play as responses to poverty and destitution? And why is a ‘cash first’ approach the way forward?
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?
Over the past three years, CPAG has convened a panel of lower income parents from Black and minority ethnic communities in London to understand how policies affect their lives and what they want to see change. What approach did CPAG take to setting up the panel and why? What were some of the key learnings? And what should others planning a similar project consider?
Child Poverty Action Group applauds the Mayor of London’s decision to provide free school meals to all London’s primary school children for another year if he wins a third term.
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.
High inflation pushed the cost of raising a child to £166,000 for a couple and £220,000 for a lone parent in 2023 but the enduring impact of benefit cuts and ongoing price rises have left many parents unable to give their children what the public says is a minimum acceptable living standard, new research shows.
