Thousands of Kent children said to be living in poverty
More than 93,000 children in Kent are living in poverty, statistics published by the End Child Poverty coalition estimate.
Thanet has the highest rate of child poverty in Kent and the South East, with around 10,500 children affected.
Figures from the centre for research in social policy at Loughborough University show 34.7% of children were thought to be in poverty in the district last year, defined as families living on £248 or less a week after housing costs.
Dover was the next worst in Kent with 6,709 youngsters living in hardship, amounting to 29.5% of the town’s children.
In Maidstone, 7,110 children were deemed in poverty, just over 20% of those in the borough, while the figure in Tonbridge and Malling was 4,922 or 17%.
Tunbridge Wells has the lowest rate of children in low-income families in the county at 16.6% (4,108). The average rate in Kent comes in at almost 30%, with an estimated total of 93,269 children living in poverty across the county. Anna Feauchtwang, chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said: “Poverty can hold children back in many different ways.
“It can mean children don’t reach a good level of health or development, do well in school or reach their potential in employment.
“The government has pledged action though its social mobility policy, but the scale of child poverty this new data reveals, means we urgently need a wider commitment from across government to improve the living standards of children, young people and families.
“In particular, we need action to address the devastating impact of benefit cuts on families, including those with disabled children, many of whom are struggling to make ends meet.”
The organisation is also concerned the impact of poverty may be exacerbated by a poverty premium – which means low income families can face paying as much as £1,700 per year more than better off families, to buy the same essential goods and services.
A major contributor to this is the high cost of credit for low income families, and the coalition wants to see the government address this by providing better access to interest free credit.