Costs and spending

Thanks to the UNICEF Office for Research a book has been published today tracing what happened to children in rich countries following the financial crisis.

Stark new food insecurity statistics highlight how many young people and those on low incomes are struggling to get enough food to eat.

Welcoming the Labour party’s commitment to extending free school meals to all primary school children, Child Poverty Action Group Chief Executive Alison Garnham said: “This is a welcome move which we have long campaigned for. The evidence on the benefits for children of extending school meals is very strong...

‘Fairness’ was the word Lord Freud used to justify the lowering of the benefit cap. But there is no fairness to be found in a policy that ignores assessed need, mostly affects people who can’t work to increase their income, and hits households with children in 93 per cent of cases.

Limiting universal credit payments to two children per family will push another 200,000 more children under the official poverty line once universal credit fully bites. The biggest group affected will be working families with three kids

New cuts limiting universal credit to the first two children in a family – starting Thursday April 6th - will push another 200,000 children below the official poverty line, new analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows.