Children in England are living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty” where deprivation has become the norm, the country’s children’s commissioner has said, insisting that the two-child benefit cap should be scrapped.
Young people have reported experiencing no water for showers, rats chewing through their walls and mouldy bedrooms, among many examples in a report into the “crisis of hardship” plaguing the country.
Children in England are being deprived of the basics
Dame Rachel de Souza said she had seen a significant change in the way young people talk about their lives since she took over as children’s commissioner four years ago, and that “issues that were traditionally seen as ‘adult’ issues are now being felt strongly by children.”
“The children shared harrowing accounts of hardship, with some living in near-Dickensian poverty,” she said. “They are not talking about ‘poverty’ as an abstract concept, but about not having the things most people would consider basic: a safe home that is not moldy or rat-infested, with a bed big enough to lie down in, ‘luxury’ foods like bacon, a place to do their homework, heating, privacy in the bathroom and being able to wash up, inviting friends over and not having to travel hours to get to school.”
The report (“Press Notice: Children are living in ‘Dickensian levels’ of poverty without their basic needs being met“), Children’s Commissioner warns said it was “deeply worrying how often children seemed to accept these inadequate situations as normal or to have alarmingly low expectations of what they should be entitled to.”
He said that, in “one of the richest societies in the world,” people in power “should be ashamed that children are growing up knowing that their future is determined by their financial situation.”
4.5m children in poverty
Labour’s flagship child poverty strategy has been shelved until at least the autumn as it faces growing pressure to scrap the two-child limit on universal credit.
On Sunday, the education secretary said the government’s recent shift in focus on welfare changes would make it harder to implement the policy, raising concerns it may not be added to the strategy.
The limit, which came into force under the Conservatives in April 2017, limits child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that 109 children are pushed into poverty every day because of the limit.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has estimated that abolishing the policy would cost the government around £3.4 billion a year and lift 500,000 children out of relative poverty.
What did the Children’s Commissioner call for?
De Souza said that “there is no quick fix to ending child poverty”, but it was “very clear that any strategy for child poverty must be based on the abolition of the two-child limit”.
The commissioner’s report, based on the experiences of 128 children aged between six and 18 across the country between January and March this year, highlighted a range of concerns, including a lack of access to quality, healthy food and living in cramped and poor conditions.
De Souza also called for a “triple lock” on child-related benefits to ensure they keep pace with rising prices, reforms to ensure families are not housed in temporary accommodation with breakfast for more than the legal limit of six weeks, and free bus travel for all school-aged children in England.
Responding to the report, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the school leaders’ union NAHT, said that teachers “are increasingly running food banks and drop-in centres, providing food vouchers and even offering use of laundries, but this should not be necessary and schools cannot tackle all the underlying causes of child poverty”.
He said he supported the commissioner’s call for action and automatic enrolment for free meals.
