About 30% of Britain’s children are now classified as poor, of whom two-thirds are from working families. Child poverty in UK at highest level since 2010.
Campbell Robb, the chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “These troubling figures are warning signs we could be at the beginning of a sharp rise in poverty, with forecasts suggesting child poverty could rise further by 2021.”
Justin Watson, the head of Oxfam’s UK programme, said: “There are now more people in poverty in the UK than there have been for almost 20 years and a million more than at the beginning of the decade.”
Campbell Robb, the chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “These troubling figures are warning signs we could be at the beginning of a sharp rise in poverty, with forecasts suggesting child poverty could rise further by 2021.”
Justin Watson, the head of Oxfam’s UK programme, said: “There are now more people in poverty in the UK than there have been for almost 20 years and a million more than at the beginning of the decade.”
The upward trend in child poverty in the UK has continued for the third year running, with the percentage of children classed as poor at its highest level since the start of the decade, latest official figures show.
About 100,000 children fell into relative poverty in 2015-16, a year on year increase of one percentage point, according to household data published by the government on Thursday. About 4 million, or around 30%, are now classed as poor. The data showed that nearly half of single-parent children are poor, with a noticeable surge in poverty over the past year among children of lone parents who work full-time. About 67% of the UK’s poor children are from working families.
Allison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said the figures were “grim”, "...according to independent experts at the IFS, the outlook for the next few years is bleaker. Most worrying of all is that the Government seems to be in a state of denial.”
Allison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said the figures were “grim”, "...according to independent experts at the IFS, the outlook for the next few years is bleaker. Most worrying of all is that the Government seems to be in a state of denial.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said income for working-age adults was no higher than eight years ago. The Government’s planned benefits freeze is also going to exacerbate inequality, as higher inflation means the value of those benefits is set to fall six per cent in real terms.
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