A national tragedy
These three girls are among the 4 million UK children living in poverty. Today Rishi Sunak could offer them new hope. If not it will remain...
CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak today has the opportunity to lift thousands of children out of poverty and give them a better life.
In his spending review, he w will reveal his plans for Britain’s reco recovery from the pandemic. Billions Bill are expected to be pumped pumpe into big infrastructure projects, proj and defence and education ed spending are set to increase. But Mr Sunak als also has the chance to end the suffering s of kids across the country cou going without decent foo food, clothes, or housing, with conditions c made worse by the pa pandemic. The statistics are clear: cle almost one in three of all child children in the UK are growing up i in poverty, a total of 4.2 million, m the worst thi this century. Almo Almost three quarters of youngsters in poverty have at least one working parent. Yet still these children go without, going to bed hungry.
But all this could change today if Mr Sunak backs our Give Me Five campaign for an immediate £5-a-week increase in child benefit, and boosts the National Minimum Wage to £10 an hour.
A £5-a-week child benefit rise would give families £340 extra a year on average, lifting 200,000 kids out of poverty.
We also want the Government to restore child tax credits, scrap the twochild limit and axe the benefit cap. And we want Mr Sunak to keep the £20-aweek Universal Credit rise which he introduced in April, but only for one year.
Our campaign is backed by Labour leader Keir Starmer and former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Writing exclusively in the Mirror today, Mr Blair says: “Every child living in poverty is a stain on our nation, that millions still do so is nothing short of a national tragedy. The incredible work
Marcus Rashford has been doing on free school meals shows the urgency of the task and the scale of support for action.”
In 1999, Mr Blair’s government made a commitment to eradicate child poverty in the UK by 2020. Tragically, 10 years of Tory austerity led child poverty to grow – it is expected to hit 5.2 million by 2022.
Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: “Child poverty has risen inexorably in recent times – from 3.6 million kids under the poverty line in 2010 to 4.2 million in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
“Child poverty is the other major challenge we face as a nation and we need to tackle it with the same urgency. But while scientists are still trying to work out exactly how to tackle Covid-19, we know what to do to reduce child poverty in the UK – we did it before, between 1998 and 2008, when more than one million kids were lifted out of poverty.
“So we can do it again. We need a comprehensive plan and clear leadership
from Downing Street. The first action point should be a weekly increase in child benefit and a commitment to retain the £ 20 uplift in Universal Credit. That’s the least we owe children in the UK as we head towards a coronavirus recession.”
The Mirror wants Mr Sunak to reverse the policies that plunged millions of children into poverty.
Brutal government cuts to public services, changes to the benefit system and increased pressure on households through low wages and rising prices have created a perfect storm with Britain’s children at the centre of it.
Mr Sunak could change all that. Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds told the Mirror: “The Conservatives have been in government for 10, long years, yet child poverty has soared on their watch. That’s why the UK entered the pandemic as one of the most unequal countries in Europe – and why the virus hit some communities much harder than others. “The Government had to be shamed into giving hungry kids free school meals and now they’re planning to cut benefits during a pandemic
“The Labour government made real progress towards ending child poverty in this country. The Conservatives have let Britain down.”
Figures from the Resolution Foundation show 29% of adults who have had a persistently low income in the pandemic say they cannot afford basic items, such as fresh fruit and vegetables every day, or to turn on the heating when required.
An Ipsos Mori poll found a significant rise in the proportion of people
who see poverty and inequality as a big issue for the country –18% mention it as a concern, up 8% since September.
The rise in child poverty has been sharpest in the most deprived areas, according to research by the End Child Poverty coalition.
Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, said: “The picture that will stay with me for ever is a child and parent walking into a food bank I was visiting.
“It was just so normal for the child, asking, ‘Can we have a can of beans?’, or, ‘Can we have some bread?’.
“It broke my heart. That for so many people this is the new normal. That this is their way of life.”
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation plotted the effects of removing the £20 Universal Credit uplift, due to happen in April, and found around 16 million people live in households which face a loss of £1,040 a year if it is scrapped.
That risks 700,000 more people, including 300,000 more children, being
swept into poverty. Half a million more people could end up in deep poverty, more than 50% below the poverty line.
FareShare, the charity teamed with Marcus Rashford, surveyed the 11,000 charities they work with and 90% said demand for food would increase or remain at crisis levels this winter.
Chief executive Lindsay Boswell said: “That’s the word from the frontline, from the people in the trenches.
“When we have those charities from all across the country saying, ‘ We are in real trouble here’, then that is really powerful and really scary.
“We are already getting reports that some of the charities we work with are beginning to stockpile food because of what’s coming. They can see that it is only heading in one direction.”
FOR more on child poverty go to mirror.co.uk/all-about/give-me-five
EVERY child enduring poverty is a stain on our nation – Tony Blair is absolutely right about that.
And the total has soared from 3.6 to 4.2 million during 10 years of callous Tory misrule with the figure likely to go up to 5.2m unless the Government changes.
Labour had pledged to abolish child poverty by 2020 so this appalling misery is a political choice. We can and must do better.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s praise for Marcus Rashford will be hollow words unless he invests in decency, raising incomes to give every child a fair start in life.
Tory-perpetuated myths about scroungers and feckless families are lies. Three-quarters of poor kids live in households with at least one parent working. Poor pay and poor benefits create child poverty. Not poor parenting.
Sunak won’t be forgiven if his poverty of ambition scars millions of young lives.