Support families

Couples with two kids fall £49 a week short of providing even the basics

EVERY parent knows that bringing up children costs a lot of money.

A report by the Child Poverty Action Group found it costs more than £150,000 to raise a child until they are 18.

It’s hardly surprising then that a combination of rising prices, benefits cuts and tax credits freezes means that parents on low incomes can no longer make ends meet.

Even a no-frills standard of living is beyond two parents who work full-time at minimum wage levels, according to the charity’s report.

It is a joke to call the legal minimum the “national living wage” when it is no such thing and leaves parents £49 a week short of what they need to look after their kids.

The Tory benefit cap and two-child tax credit limit, cuts to housing benefits and the roll-out of universal credit have hit family budgets hard.

Life for people out of work and on benefits is harsh but it’s getting tougher too for families on low or modest incomes.

This increase in working people trapped in poverty is, as Gordon Brown highlighted last week, going to be a huge social issue in the next decade.

COUPLES raising two children while working fulltime on the minimum wage are falling £49 a week short of being able to provide their family with a basic, no-frills lifestyle, research has found.

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) called for an increase in the so-called national living wage to ensure families have an acceptable standard of living.

Their Cost Of A Child report, published today, shows an 11 per cent weekly shortfall for a couple raising two kids at the point they are three and seven.

The deficit for lone parents is worse, with them falling 20 per cent short each week.

The charity blamed rising prices, tax credit freezes, the bedroom tax and the roll-out of universal credit for hitting “family budgets hard”.

CPAG chief executive Alison Garnham said: “There is strong public support for Government topping up the wages of low-paid parents and investing in children is the best longterm investment we can make.

“By using the Budget to unfreeze benefits and restore work allowances, the Government can take steps towards making work really pay.”

Gains from increased minimum wages were offset by a freeze in tax credit support, the research said.

The findings did show an improvement on last year, when the family with an 11 per cent shortfall would have had a 13 per cent deficit. The overall cost for a couple raising a first child until they are 18 fell from £155,100 to £150,800.

A Government spokesman said fewer are living in absolute poverty today.

He added: “The employment rate is at a near-record high and the national living wage has delivered the highest pay increase for the lowest paid in 20 years, worth £2000 extra per year for a full-time worker.”

There’s strong support for topping up wages ALISON GARNHAM CPAG CHIEF EXECUTIVE ON LOW PAY