Record 4.5m children living in poverty, UK data shows
A record 4.5 million children are living in poverty in the UK, according to official statistics.
The data, released on Thursday, shows that a further 100,000 children were living below the breadline in the year to April 2024 – the full final year of the Conservative government.
There was also a rise in the number of children experiencing food insecurity – meaning their families could not feed them regularly – and those in households relying on food banks.
Campaigners warned poverty could increase even further under Labour unless it axed the two-child benefit cap in its child poverty strategy, expected in June. The party's manifesto also promised to cut food bank reliance.
Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group and vice-chair of End Child Poverty, said: 'Today's grim statistics are a stark warning that the government's own commitment to reduce child poverty will crash and burn unless it takes urgent action.
'The government's child poverty strategy must invest in children's life chances, starting by scrapping the two-child limit. Record levels of kids living in poverty isn't the change people voted for.'
The government revealed on Wednesday that its cuts to disability and incapacity benefits would push 50,000 children into poverty by the end of the decade, and 200,000 disabled adults.
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