Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
The day after Labour announced welfare cuts in order to stay within its fiscal rules, new government data served up a stark warning: a record 4.5 million children are living in relative poverty.
This amounts to 31 per cent of children in the UK in 2023-24, the last year of Conservative rule, and is up from 27 per cent in 2020-21.
There has also been an increase in the number of children experiencing food insecurity and living in households that rely on food banks.
Campaigners warn that the number of children in relative poverty could rise to 4.8 million by the end of this parliament unless Labour scraps the two-child benefit cap and rethinks its efforts to slash the welfare bill.
An impact assessment published this week forecast that an additional 50,000 children could be pushed into poverty by benefit cuts.
