29 May 2020
Oldham has the highest child poverty figures in the North West. Shocking figures released by the End Child Poverty coalition(1) show that 38% of Oldham children are in poverty, a rise of 9.3% since 2014, both figures are the highest in the North West. National figures also show that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) children and children in lone parent families are more likely to be living in poverty (2).
With nearly three quarters of children in poverty living in working families (2) the government mantra that work is the way out of poverty doesn’t cut any ice.
Let’s be clear about where responsibility lies. The rise in child poverty since 2014 has been fuelled by government decisions on tax and benefits. Tax cuts have mainly benefited the wealthy and big corporations. Deciding to claw back the money used to bail out the bankers through benefit freezes and cuts has hit low income families hard, including the frontline workforce essential during the lockdown. Rises in the minimum wage and tax cuts have not compensated for benefit reductions. Families with children have been hardest hit.
Since 2010 there have been ongoing cuts to benefits paid for children. For example, Child Benefit has been frozen for 7 out of the last 10 years. Child additions in Tax Credits, Housing Benefit and Universal Credit were included in the four year freeze of working age benefits, 2016-2020. The Two-Child Limit removed financial support for third or subsequent children born after 5/4/2017. 43% of children in families of 3 children or more live in poverty (2) The Benefit Cap, affecting mainly lone parents with babies, pushes families below the minimum the law says is needed for basic essentials.
There have been a range of other cuts that specifically target families with children. They have all come on top of cuts to adult benefits, cuts to help with housing costs, the falling value of wages, insecure work and rising costs - like childcare and private sector rents. All driven by government policies
Further, in 2016 the government scrapped its legal duty to report on Child Poverty and the targets to reduce it.
Before the Coronavirus crisis levels of child poverty were predicted to carry on rising (3), the lockdown is plunging even more children into poverty. In April over 2 million people had to make claims for Universal Credit, many have children. Oldham has had the highest increase in people claiming benefits for unemployment in Greater Manchester. They are discovering that the benefit system that they pay for through taxes does not provide the financial protection needed in these times of emergency.
It is not just about ruinous delays in payment, crippling advance loan repayments and difficult claim procedures. People who make a successful claim are finding that even with the temporary £20 weekly increase in Universal Credit the amount they are paid is not enough to cover the most basic essentials, that housing help doesn’t cover their full rent or their full council tax and that they have decide between rent or food or fuel. Food banks report that food parcels for children have increased by at least 122% (4).
The Green Party supports the urgent call from the End Child Poverty coalition for the government to immediately increase the financial help for children and repair the social security system. We have also argued from the start of the lockdown that the most effective way to give people real financial protection from poverty and to ensure that no one falls through the many holes in the current system, now and in the future, is to introduce a Universal Basic Income (5).
Building a healthy poverty free future for children should be a greater priority and will have greater economic benefits than pouring hundreds of billions into overspent, badly managed projects like HS2 and Trident nuclear missiles, and letting big corporations avoid tax.
(1) The Centre for Research on Social Policy at Loughborough University, on behalf of the End Child Poverty coalition, has analysed recently released DWP data tracking changes in child poverty 2014-2019. See https://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/children-cut-adrift-as-poverty-leaves-covid-generation-facing-a-perilous-future/ and also http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/local-child-poverty-data-201415-20189/
(2) 45% of BAME children, compared with 26% of White British children, 47% of children in lone parent families and 43% of children in families with 3 or more children live in poverty. See: https://cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures
(3) Living standards, poverty and inequality in the UK: 2017–18 to 2021–22, The Institute for Fiscal Studies https://www.ifs.org.uk/uploads/publications/comms/R136.pdf
(4)The Trussall Trust https://www.trusselltrust.org/2020/05/01/coalition-call/
(5) The Green Party press release 20 March 2020 in News on the national Green Party website: https://www.greenparty.org.uk
For the Green Party policy on Universal Basic Income see paragraphs 730-734 of our policies on the Economy https://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ec.html
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