A heartbreaking study has discovered that the number of children living in poverty has soared in the past year, with education now a luxury that numerous families can no longer afford.
A new State of Child Poverty report, produced by charity Buttle UK, found 122,000 children are living in poverty, accounting for 60 per cent of the young people frontline workers support. This is up from 45 per cent in just 12 months, with ministers facing calls to ditch the two-child Universal Credit limit and introduce an Essential Guarantee.
Researchers talked to more than 1,200 workers who support children in poverty, with one saying that the families they support were now having to make choices about whether they can eat or stay warm, with families not being able to enjoy both and that this had a significant impact within the families they support, and that a parent had to choose whether to keep the child off school so that they could get milk and bread with the money that would have been spent on bus fares.
Six in 10 of supported children are slipping behind at school, with the charity warning that education is becoming a luxury that some families can no longer prioritise because it’s no longer a given that families can sustain basic needs, such as a warm roof over their heads or regular food to eat.
Destitution refers to those enduring the lowest standards of living in the United Kingdom, and in order to be classed as destitute, a family must meet two of five criteria in the previous month. Sleep rough for at least one night, have had fewer than two meals for more than two days. Have not been able to heat and light a home for more than five days, not had the right clothing for the weather conditions or been unable to afford essential toiletries like soap or toothpaste.
Labour MP Catherine McKinnell, who chairs the Common Petitions Committee, said that as a society, we’re failing our children and harming their futures, and that was always going to be the poorest families that were most vulnerable to soaring food, rent and fuel prices since so much more of their household income is spent on the basics.
She said that it’s still shocking to see the scale of the suffering caused by the cost of living crisis laid out in Buttle UK’s annual report. The report found that crippling fuel costs are driving cycles of deprivation with families unable to afford essentials, while 70 per cent of young people in poverty experience mental health problems.
Joseph Howes, chief executive of Buttle UK, said their report demonstrated the catastrophic impact of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis, which has meant that more and more children are having to go without food and that the situations those challenges are creating are preventing them from having any chance to reach their potential at school, and that the increase in children and young people living in destitution is stark and worrying.
Now, millions of children under the age of four are growing up in poverty, and education is a luxury for many, as well as the lack of support services in local communities which were having a negative effect on families.
Children need a healthy balanced diet and a wide range of nutrients to help them stay healthy. Rickets was an ailment that was a thing of the past, but soon, if things carry on the way they are, these childhood diseases that were a thing of the past will soon be back.
And very soon Christmas will be a thing of the past because it will be something that people only dream about because they just won’t be able to afford it.
Of course, the wealthy will be able to afford everything that they want. It’s always been that way, but now it’s even more alarming.
Eventually, the rich will be allowed what they like, but the impoverished and disadvantaged they won’t even be allowed to own property or any possessions.
Everything that our Government tell us is a wealthy delusion. Well, to the unassuming it is.
Wealth has always been tied to Governments and of course, the Bank of England. It was how they controlled us and how they still control us.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 