Our new research reveals the number of children living in deepest poverty remains unacceptably high at 1.6 million. We're calling on the Chancellor to draw up an emergency plan to tackle it.
Wednesday 23 February 2011
For the first time Save the Children has provided a local authority breakdown of the figures. Manchester has the highest proportion of children living in severe child poverty in the UK, with the London borough of Tower Hamlets a close second. In 29 local authorities across the country more than one in five children lives in severe poverty.
Within the UK, Wales has the highest proportion of children living in severe poverty nationwide (14%), followed by England (13%) then Scotland and Northern Ireland (9% each).
The worst-affected English regions are London (18%), followed by the West Midlands (16%), and the North West (15%).
With increasing unemployment and cuts in welfare payments, Save the Children fears that even more children will be forced into severe poverty in the coming months without urgent and concerted action.
“Children up and down the country are going to sleep at night in homes with no heating, without eating a proper meal and without proper school uniforms to put on in the morning,” said Sally Copley, Save the Children's head of UK policy. “No child should be born without a chance. It’s a national scandal that 1.6 million children are growing up in severe poverty.”
Emergency plan
We’re calling on the Chancellor to announce an emergency plan in the next budget to:
- channel new jobs into the poorest areas
- increase financial support for low-income families, for example, by paying for more childcare costs enabling parents to work
At present, the government has no official way to measure how many children are caught up in severe child poverty, or to estimate the impact of their policies on this most vulnerable section of the population. We want the Government to adopt our pioneering measurement of severe child poverty, which combines both income and material deprivation.
“If the government is to fulfil its commitments on child poverty, it must find a way of counting children in greatest need,” Copley continued. “At the moment, these children are hidden from official view, and their plight unrecognised. If these children are to have a future, we must acknowledge their desperate need and urgently target government help towards them.”
What is severe poverty?
A lone-parent family with one child aged under 14 in severe poverty is living on an income of less than £7,000 and a couple with two children under 14 is on less than £12,500.
These families are also going without the things that many of us take for granted such as being able to properly celebrate birthdays or special events and build friendships by having children round for tea.
Ten local authority areas with the highest levels of severe child poverty
1 Manchester 27%
2 Tower Hamlets 27%
3 Newham 25%
4 Leicester 24%
5 Westminster 24%
6 Nottingham 23%
7 Liverpool 23%
8 Birmingham 23%
9 Blackpool 22%
10 Hackney 22%
Stop severe child poverty – take action now
Read the severe poverty report
Severe poverty in pictures: browse our Guardian photo story