Child poverty hotspots revealed
At least four in 10 children are living in poverty in 19 parliamentary constituencies in the UK, latest figures show
The statistics, which present the child poverty landscape in mid-2011, have been released by the Campaign to End Child Poverty, which has mapped child poverty across the whole of the UK.
Constituencies with the highest levels of child poverty include Bethnal Green and Bow (51 per cent), Manchester Central (49 per cent), Poplar and Canning Town (48 per cent) and Belfast West (46 per cent).
A more localised breakdown reveals that in 100 wards throughout the UK, the majority of children remain in poverty.
At the other end of the spectrum the report reveals that 89 constituencies already meet the government’s headline target for 2020 by having child poverty rates of 10 per cent or lower.
Publication of the map comes after the Institute for Fiscal Studies last week estimated that half a million more children will fall into poverty within the next three years.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty, made up of more than 150 organisations including children’s charities and child welfare organisations, is calling on government to rebalance its deficit reduction measures so that the burden does not fall unfairly on families with low incomes.
It is also calling on government to set out clearly the reductions in child poverty they expect to achieve from the child poverty strategy published in April 2011.
Alison Garnham, executive director of the campaign, said: “The child poverty map paints a stark picture of a socially segregated Britain where the life chances of millions of children are damaged by poverty and inequality.
“But it also gives us reason for hope. The child poverty target has already been met in the Prime Minister’s constituency (Witney) and nearly 100 others, so never let it be said that the targets are impossible to meet.
“If we can do it in Witney today, we can do it in Hackney tomorrow.”
Garnham warned that “targeting cuts on families” will prove “an economic and social disaster”, with businesses losing billions of pounds of demand and families struggling to keep their children clothed, fed and warm.
“The government urgently needs a serious plan to stop the rise in unemployment and to create jobs so that young people and parents can get out of the dole queue and into the workplace,” she said.
“We need a plan to target investment through the family purse to stimulate the economy, so that shops, services and businesses get the customers they need to stay afloat and recruit staff.”
Anne Longfield, chief executive of charity 4Children, said arguments by politicians over how child poverty should be measured are not helping the situation.
“We should not accept child poverty as a fact of life,” she said. “Despite the coalition’s praise for Frank Field’s report on child poverty and David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s commitment to tackling the issue, the fight to improve the lives of millions of children has been stymied by a debate between politicians preoccupied by the relative merits of different ways of measuring how poor children are.
“Instead we should be redoubling our efforts on all fronts to lift children out of poverty.
Source: CYP NOW
