05.09.12
Recession hits children in poverty – Save the Children
Children in poverty are being hit hardest by the recession and are sometimes missing out on new shoes or hot meals, new research shows.
The charity Save the Children has launched its first campaign to help UK children, and is calling for Government to focus on benefits for low-paid families and for employers to pay a living wage.
The report, It Shouldn’t Happen Here, surveyed over 1,500 children and 5,000 parents in the lowest income groups. Results showed 61% of parents cut back on what they are, 26% skipped meals and 19% said their children sometimes had to go without new shoes when they needed them.
There are an estimated 3.5 million children living in poverty – defined as a family income of less than £17,000 a year. 61% of children in poverty have working parents.
Chief executive, Justin Forsyth, said: “No child should see their parent going hungry or start the new term without a warm coat and with holes in their shoes.
“Given that most children living in poverty have at least one parent in work; it is appalling that those parents can’t earn enough to give themselves and their kids a decent life.
“The Government must make work pay by encouraging more employers to introduce a living wage, provide extra child care support to help parents trying to get into work and protect the poorest and most disadvantaged from further cuts.”
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman blamed the previous government’s approach to poverty and said: “The Government remains committed to eradicating child poverty, but we want to take a new approach by tackling the root causes including worklessness, educational failure and family breakdown.
“And our welfare reforms will improve the lives of some of the poorest families in our communities, with the Universal Credit simplifying the complex myriad of benefits and lifting 350,000 children and 550,000 adults out of poverty.”
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