
More children in the UK are living in poverty than pensioners and it should shame us all
It's been a fairly average few weeks for child poverty headlines in the UK, in that there have been many, and they've been brutal. A national crisis rolling on through 2025, the bodies of our poorest children falling beneath its wheels.
This week, findings from a research laboratory set up by Sarah and Gordon Brown confirmed that deprivation impacts a baby's brain development. Last week, it was announced that 30,000 British children have been pushed into poverty since the election by the two-child limit. The week before: a new record was set, with 4.5 million children now living in poverty in the UK.
It's not quite what we were promised. Not in the Labour manifesto – where there was a specific pledge to reduce child poverty – or on the campaign posters the party shared online that pitched their future for our country. The most emotive of which depicted a family flanked by tall wheatgrass, one child on the dad's shoulders, a second backlit by the sinking, late-afternoon sun, and the words: 'Change will only happen if you vote for it.'
Nine months on, that promised powder-blue-sky future has dissolved into fantasy land, with a Labour government now predicted to deliver an even bigger record: 4.8 million children living in poverty by the end of their first parliamentary term (which led Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group to comment, 'Record levels of kids living in poverty isn't the change people voted for.')
It would certainly represent an extraordinary failure of this government, one that to date, hasn't impressed with their work on the crisis. 'Disappointingly, the UK government has not yet shown the level of political ambition and commitment needed to match the scale of the challenge,' Joanna Barrett, associate head of policy at the NSPCC, tells The Independent.
And the cost? It rains down on our children. The same children who were locked in their homes and out of schools in Covid (lest we forget theme parks opened before the classrooms did) – and emerged with anxiety and delayed development, some not emerging at all. British children have some of the worst health outcomes in Europe (including the lowest wellbeing of all countries) and see relatively little invested in their early care and education (0.5 per cent of GDP versus the likes of France and the Nordics, who spend double that).
Sometimes it feels like we've made a national sport out of failing our children – in the UK right now, they face higher levels of poverty than any other group in society (twice that of pensioners). 'All children deserve the best start in life,' says Alison Garnham. 'But far too many are denied that chance – that's something that should put us all to shame'.
The shame is only growing. The recent welfare cuts – targeting disability and sickness benefits – announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the spring statement 'pulled the rug from under people who are ill and disabled', says Garnham.
With 44 per cent of children in poverty already living with someone who is disabled, the reforms, she says, 'will drive child poverty higher still'. On that point, the government (kind of) agrees, their own impact statement putting the number of kids that'll be pushed into poverty at some 50,000 (or the population of Durham).
Back to basics
Jolene, a neurodivergent mum of three neurodivergent children in Wales (and member of online lived experience documentary project, Changing Realities), knows exactly what those 50,000 kids face. Her own family plunged into hardship after she quit her job to care for her autistic child, who'd increasingly struggled during Covid.
'She stopped going to school, stopped sleeping, stopped leaving the house,' says Jolene. But her daughter's crisis was met with threats of school absence fines, no offer of alternative provision, and a refusal of help from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services).
After leaving her job working in an opticians, Jolene entered the 'humiliating' and complex world of disability and sickness benefits. It took 18 months to receive PIP (personal independence payment) after an initial refusal by the Department for Work and Pensions (they U-turned just before a tribunal was due to hear an appeal).
'Things were severe,' says Jolene, whose partner worked full time. 'We could just about afford food, the absolute basics.' How bad did the situation get? 'One day I was going to kill myself,' she says of the substantial period of hardship, fighting for benefits she was entitled to and for support for her daughter. 'I thought, this is the only way to get help for my children.'
After three years, Jolene was able to return to work part time, at a job she loves. Finally, she thought, her family's fortunes were changing. Then, two blows in quick succession: the disability green paper and welfare reforms dropped, and just a week ago, the family's PIP renewal was refused out of the blue, stripping them of £550 per month instantly.
Now, Jolene is preparing for another PIP appeal, but knows she'll lose money regardless due to the reforms. 'The level of trauma that comes from trying to navigate a system that is supposed to be a safety net…' she says with both sadness and anger. 'There is no safety net.'
Far from driving her further into employment, which the government is relying on to ease hardship, she is now unsure how she is going to be able to afford to go to work with her caring responsibilities and the huge cuts to her family's income. 'I don't know how we're going to manage. I feel crushed. I was trying so hard to lift myself up from the depths of despair. What more can I possibly do?'
It's a very good question. With 71 per cent of children in poverty living in a working household (at least one working adult), it's not even the case that forcing people into employment via hardship is the fix. 'Government knows that employment isn't where the answers lie,' says Garnham, pointing to the actions of the last Labour government, which lifted hundreds of thousands of kids out of poverty. 'We know what key levers to pull.'
She points out – contrary to hysteria around spiralling benefits – that we spend £50bn a year less on social security than we did in 2010, and that benefits have been increased by headline inflation only five times in the last 14 years. 'That should focus ministers on the need to reinvest.'
Scrap the two-child benefit cap
And there's no investment more urgently needed than that to scrap the two-child limit – a welfare policy that blocks families in receipt of universal credit or tax credits from support for any child after the second. A policy called 'obscene' by Labour in opposition after it was proven to influence women's decisions on abortion.
Morality (and humanity) aside, the policy is an outlier, globally. Ruth Patrick, professor of social policy at the University of York and lead of Changing Realities calls it an 'internationally unique policy' saying that 'when we did a comparative investigation looking at the approaches other countries take to providing support for children through their social security system, the UK was the only country which limits support at just two children'.
And yes, when judged against other advanced economies, the UK experienced the largest increase in child poverty from 2014-2021, a rise entirely made up of bigger families (half of all large families now live in poverty).
As a tool wielded by the state then, it's unparalleled at increasing hardship, forcing an additional 109 children every single day below the poverty line. And while the bad news is that the two-child limit is the single biggest driver of child poverty, the good news is that its end would be the quickest and most cost-effective solution, lifting 540,000 kids out of poverty at a cost of £2.5bn per year.
Too expensive, the government cries. Yet, it represents a lower cost per child than any other potential change in the benefits system. And even the most rudimentary maths suggests that with child poverty costing the country £39bn per year currently – and increasing year on year, hitting £40bn by 2027 – by my rudimentary calculations this one measure, would lift 4 per cent of children out of poverty and you could put just over £1.5bn back in the pot straight away.
And that number is even more likely to scream 'bargain' when the more indirect savings are counted across an entire lifetime. With improved life chances for children, savings would be made in health, social care, and the criminal justice system when they become adults. Potential higher taxes could be counted on (just like Sure Start, which is now proven to have more than paid for itself in those areas). Not to mention the moral imperative of respecting a child's most basic human rights to food, to shelter, to education, and life.
Currently, research shows that kids in our most deprived areas are far less likely to achieve a grade 5 or above in English and Maths, but are far more likely to be obese, to lose their teeth, to live in nutritional food deserts, to struggle with their mental health, to be absent or expelled from school, to be homeless, to even die sooner. And in adulthood, those who grew up in poverty earn less, are more likely to have long-term mental health issues.
Still, ministers – including work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall in an interview just last week – have continued to resist calls from the likes of the End Child Poverty coalition (a group of 130 organisations and charities) – to scrap it ('we will only make promises if we show we can afford it and how we're going to commit to them'). Wait, she says, for the government's child poverty strategy – now due in June, almost a year after they took office.
For the experts though, scrapping the two-child limit is non-negotiable. 'If the government's child poverty strategy leaves it in place,' says Garnham, 'it will not be a credible strategy.'
India, a mum of four kids (aged 1-7) from Suffolk, found herself brutalised by the two-child limit after her life changed overnight. 'This was not the plan,' she says of the unexpected separation from her husband while pregnant with her fourth, and youngest, child – an event that pushed her into homelessness and in need of desperate help from the state for the first time.
'A big shock' is how India describes the realisation, while applying for universal credit, that she would receive no support at all for her youngest two children due to the two-child limit – a loss of several thousand pounds. India was then also hit by the benefit cap – an intersecting limit on the amount of benefits all working-age people can claim – that cut an additional £250 a month from her housing benefit.
To say life has been a struggle since is an understatement. She buys her kid's clothes, shoes and school uniforms second-hand or via donations, has used the local authority's welfare assistance scheme, but still, after rent and bills, there's little left.
'Sometimes there's not enough for food, so I have to use food banks,' she says. 'I'll eat toast or whatever they don't eat – but I don't want them to realise [why]. They shouldn't have to know.' For while the pressure on India is clearly immense and, at times, unbearable – 'I've had moments where I feel like I'm failing as a parent, you have breakdowns, are in tears' – her only real concern is for her children, and the impact on them of living in poverty.
'I worry about it affecting not just their physical, but their mental health,' she says. She worries that being unable to afford anything extracurricular – 'they would love to do swimming lessons' – means they 'can't experience those things that could help them later in life.'Like Jolene, India would love to work, but childcare costs would leave her in even deeper poverty.
Niña from London, now 19 and a youth ambassador for the End Child Poverty Coalition, whose family was pushed into homelessness by hardship, talks about the impact it had on her.
'It was really traumatising,' she says, becoming emotional. 'I'm [still] always scared of losing my house, my home.' Growing up, Niña's own long-term goals 'had to take a back seat'. But she says: 'It held me back socially more than anything'.
Fellow ambassador Sophie, 21, who grew up in a single-parent family in the northeast, recognises this pressure. 'I couldn't concentrate at school because I was worrying about my sisters and stuff [at home],' she says. 'Like realising when I got older that my mam might be skipping meals.'
Now studying at university – due to sheer force of will and graft – Sophie has to work twice as hard as her peers just to keep her head above water. Whether it's working 'three or four jobs in the holidays' or finding (and paying) for a guarantor so she is able to rent a house without a home-owning parent. 'I sometimes wonder why I'm doing it when it's so hard,' Sophie says. 'The worry never leaves you, the anxiety.'
All eyes then are on the government, the party of social and economic equality, to give children the same opportunity to thrive, to learn, to live. Their child poverty strategy is the only real chance to begin fixing this most urgent national crisis, one in which we've currently abandoned our poorest and most vulnerable children.
'Unless we see significant action on child poverty, the UK risks becoming an international outlier among richer countries in how badly it treats children living on a low income,' says Ruth Patrick. 'The future of this nation and its children depend on it.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

South Wales Argus
31 minutes ago
- South Wales Argus
Nigel Farage calls for ‘re-industrialisation' of Wales
On a visit to South Wales, the leader of Reform UK said the resumption of traditional steelmaking and coal production is the party's long-term ambition if it comes to power. The speech came one year ahead of the Senedd elections in May next year, where the party is looking to end Labour's 26 years of domination. Addressing reporters, Mr Farage acknowledged that plans to open a traditional furnace could take years and cost 'in the low billions'. The GMB Union has branded the plans 'more lies from an opportunistic chancer'. Port Talbot's remaining blast furnaces were shut down in September, with a new electric arc furnace being built in their place. Tata Steel, the owner of the plant, said the closure of the furnaces was necessary, with the steelworks losing £1m a day. 'Our ambition is to re-industrialise Wales,' Mr Farage said. 'We are going to be using more steel over the next few years than we have probably ever used. 'As we increase military spending and as we attempt a house building programme in Wales, and even more so in England, of massive proportions, just to catch up with the population explosion over the last 20 years, we are going to need a lot of steel.' Tata Steel's Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales (Ben Birchall/PA) The Reform leader said 'specific types of coal' are needed in the UK, particularly for a new blast furnace. 'I'm not saying let's open all of the pits,' he said. 'What I am saying is coal, specific types of coal for certain uses that we still need in this country – and we certainly will need for the blast furnaces here – we should be producing ourselves rather than importing.' While he acknowledged 'mining is dangerous', Mr Farage said the industry could provide well-paying jobs. The Reform leader acknowledged the plan to open a new furnace would cost 'in the low billions' and would be 'no easy thing'. 'It's a massive, expensive job to reopen blast furnaces, we're going to need cheaper energy, we're going to need much cheaper coal, we are going to need private business partners prepared to come into a joint venture,' he said. Responding to the GMB Union allegations that his party's plans were 'lies', Mr Farage said the union was tied to the Labour Party as one of its biggest funders. He said: 'They see us as a challenge, and therefore, they'll be rude about us. 'What you will find is that increasingly, GMB members are going to vote for us, and the more GMB members vote for us, the more upset GMB officials and leaders will become. 'Frankly, the trade unions have done nothing to protect British workers through open borders over the last 20-25 years.' During his speech, Mr Farage said he doubted that the electric arc furnace, which is due to come online in 2028, 'will ever, ever be switched on'. Challenged on what evidence he had, he argued that with British energy prices being so high, it would be producing 'very, very expensive secondary steel'. He added: 'I hope I'm wrong, an electric arc furnace is not the real deal, but it's better than nothing.' Mr Farage said the party's campaign for the Senedd election next May 'starts today', but would not say when Reform would announce a leader in Wales. Regional officer Ruth Brady, speaking at the GMB's annual conference in Brighton, said: 'The people of Port Talbot will see this for what it is – more lies from this opportunistic chancer. 'Nigel Farage was happy to let British Steel go to the wall. He'll trot out any line when the cameras are rolling. He doesn't care about steel communities or steel workers.' Ms Brady said the plans to shut the blast furnaces were made by the last Tory government and the union wanted Labour to 'make good on their promises to our members in Port Talbot'. Political opponents hit out at Reform's plans, with a Welsh Labour spokesperson saying the people of Wales would 'see through' Mr Farage's false hopes and promises. 'His answer is to bring back the mines. The only thing Nigel Farage is trying to mine is votes from communities that have already gone through tough times,' they said. 'Nigel Farage has today brought his fantasy politics and magic money tree to Port Talbot. He's gambling with real people's livelihoods.' Darren Millar, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, accused Mr Farage of making 'wild promises' without speaking to Tata. Welsh Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick argued mining was Wales' past, not its future. Nigel Farage acknowledged 'mining is dangerous' but said the industry could provide well-paying jobs (Ben Birchall/PA) 'My relatives in South Wales worked hard to ensure that their children and grandchildren wouldn't have to do the dangerous work of going down the pits and for future generations to have better opportunities in life,' he said. 'The fact that Nigel Farage doesn't see this shows how poorly he understands Welsh communities.' Heledd Fychan, speaking for Plaid Cymru, accused Mr Farage of 'taking advantage' after the industry said reopening the existing furnaces would be 'impossible.' 'You can imagine my surprise at his calls to reopen the coal mines in Wales, especially considering the actions taken by his political hero, Margaret Thatcher,' she said. 'Reform clearly have no interest in actually improving the lives of the people of Wales, they can only come up with unrealistic and unsubstantiated headlines that will be of no material benefit to the people of Port Talbot or Wales. Greenpeace also hit out at the plans, saying bringing back British coal 'has about as much chance of success as resurrecting dinosaurs'.


Scottish Sun
34 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Britain's Bond-style ‘Q' boffins unveil underwater drone to take on Putin's cable-cutters…by blowing them to smithereens
BRITAIN'S top defence brainboxes have unveiled a Bond-style underwater drone designed to stop Putin's cable-cutting saboteurs in their tracks. The super sub can hunt out and destroy sabotage threats lurking on the seabed - by blowing them to smithereens. 5 The underwater drone can prevent adversaries from sabotaging undersea cables and pipelines by disarming or removing threats Credit: UK Gov 5 The high-tech robot has already been trialled Portsmouth's Horsea Island, Portland Harbour, South Wales and Norway Credit: UK Gov 5 The sub targets any potential saboteurs by blowing them to smithereens Credit: UK GOV Developed by the MoD's Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), it is armed and ready to protect the UK's vital undersea cables and pipelines. Using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), Dstl's boffins have added cutting-edge sensors, cameras, and explosive systems to high-tech underwater robot. That way, operators are able to spot unexploded bombs, place charges remotely, and safely neutralise the threat — without risking Royal Navy divers. John, a Dstl explosives engineer, said: 'This technology would be a valuable toolset for keeping our Armed Forces safe whilst providing the public with value for money. 'This unique capability with its sensors, tools and cameras will give operators a real time ability to deal with these underwater hazards in a safe, effective and efficient way.' The underwater drone goes deeper than any diver can, staying down for far longer and working tirelessly. It can be launched from a ship or even a shoreline, sending back sonar and video feeds to operators who remain at a safe distance while disarming explosives or fending off hostile actions. Crucially, it's reusable. Once a threat is neutralised, the drone sub lives to dive another day - cutting costs while keeping seas safe. The project is also a win for British industry, supporting specialist jobs through partnerships with firms like Alford Technologies, Atlantas Marine, Sonardyne and ECS Special Projects. Trials have already taken place in Portsmouth's Horsea Island, Portland Harbour, South Wales and as far afield as Norway. Putin humiliated as Russian war facility EXPLODES in Ukrainian drone strike The Royal Navy is now developing tactics and techniques to make full use of the new tech. The Ministry of Defence hailed the innovation on social media, calling it a leap forward in protecting sailors and vital undersea cables. The new underwater drone arrives amid warnings about Russian undersea activity in UK waters. In April, it was revealed that Kremlin spy sensors had been found close to British territory — believed to be tracking the Royal Navy's nuclear submarines. The sensors, reportedly deployed using Russian oligarchs' luxury yachts, were discovered washed ashore and picked up by Navy minehunter ships. Officials fear the covert operation could be part of a wider 'greyzone' campaign to gather intelligence and target undersea infrastructure. Royal Navy and RAF assets were scrambled last November when the suspected Russian spy ship Yantar was seen 'lurking around pipelines and internet cables' in the Irish Sea. Around the same time, RAF fighter jets intercepted a Russian warplane over the North Sea, and unmanned Russian underwater vehicles were also detected near communication cables. 5 The Minehunter HMS Cattistock (R) shadowing Admiral Vladimirsky through the English Channel Credit: SWNS 5 One senior source told The Sunday Times: 'It's a bit like the space race. This is a world clouded in secrecy and subterfuge… but there's enough smoke to suggest something is on fire somewhere.' In March, HMS Cattistock and a Wildcat helicopter were sent to monitor the Admiral Vladimirskiy, a so-called research ship revealed in 2023 to be a spy vessel suspected of probing Britain's power supply and internet links. HMS Somerset and other Royal Navy units were also deployed multiple times to escort Russian vessels including a beach landing ship returning from the Mediterranean. At least 11 internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been damaged in the past 15 months — some suspected to have been dragged by Russian ships — while surface vessels like the Admiral Vladimirskiy have continued probing waters near the UK. In response, military chiefs are drawing up Operation Atlantic Bastion — a sweeping new patrol mission using air, land and sea forces to defend UK and Nato interests in the North Atlantic.

The National
38 minutes ago
- The National
SNP urge Labour to abandon disability cuts after winter fuel U-turn
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Monday that nine million pensioners in England and Wales will be in receipt of the payment this year after a cut was announced in the first weeks of the Labour Government last summer. The initial decision was met with heavy backlash and forced the Scottish Government to delay the implementation of its own devolved benefit. John Swinney's administration later announced a similar payment for pensioners which would be tapered and see those on the highest incomes receiving £100, compared to £305.10 for those on the least. Monday's announcement will result in cash being sent to the devolved administration at Holyrood. But now, the SNP have pushed for a different approach on welfare reform, after the UK Government also announced a £5 billion cut to benefits earlier this year. 'The Chancellor must now abandon her devastating cuts to disabled people – and scrap the two-child benefit cap,' SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn said. 'This screeching U-turn was inevitable and lessons must be learnt from the damaging mess the Labour Government caused by robbing pensioners of their winter fuel payments.' He added: 'It must be swiftly followed by an end to all Labour Party austerity cuts – scrapping the planned cuts to disability benefits and abolishing punitive welfare policies, including the Labour Government's two-child benefit cap and bedroom tax. 'At the spending review on Wednesday, the Labour Government must end its austerity cuts for good – and not impose even more cuts to families and public services.' Scottish Greens social security spokesperson Maggie Chapman, meanwhile, said: 'Cutting the Winter Fuel Payment was one of the first acts of this Labour government. Elected on a promise of 'change' they brought in sweeping austerity that harmed older people across the UK at a time when the cost of living remains sky high. The MSP added: 'There is no doubt that the damage has already been done, families will have lost loved ones, and illnesses will have been caused over the winter months because of the brutal decision by Rachel Reeves and the Labour Government. 'Labour's cutting of the Winter Fuel Payment, refusal to end the two-child benefit cap and regressive austerity measures are forcing people into poverty in Scotland and across the UK.' Chapman went on: "The reinstatement of the Winter Fuel Payment for some is a welcome move, but we must go further, the Labour government must end the two-child benefit cap which hits working class families the hardest, and they must reverse their cruel austerity policies. 'Poverty isn't inevitable; it's a political policy, a policy which Rachel Reeves has forced upon hundreds of thousands of people across the UK. If Keir Starmer has any shame, he would finally call an end to her disastrous time as Chancellor.'