Action on child poverty
Government urged to be 'bold and ambitious'
Quakers joined calls for the government to be ‘bold and ambitious’ in its child poverty strategy.
Adwoa Burnley, clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, signed a letter backed by thirty-five faith leaders and organised by the Methodist Church. The letter, on 23 March, was sent to Bridget Phillipson, secretary of state for Education, and Liz Kendall, secretary of state for Work and Pensions – co-chairs of the Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce.
Figures from the Quaker-founded Joseph Rowntree Foundation show that three in every ten children in the UK are living in poverty. The letter states: ‘We welcome the government’s acknowledgement in its manifesto that the UK’s increasing levels of child poverty and reliance on emergency food are a “moral scar” on our nation. Without action this scar will deepen, with an additional 400,000 children set to be pulled into poverty over the next decade… While we come from different faith traditions, we share a belief that working to end poverty should be a hallmark of any decent, compassionate society.’
The letter also highlights the findings from ‘Paying the Price’, a new report from Action for Children, released last month, which sets out measures that would lift 1.2 million children out of poverty by 2030. These measures include: action to reform and invest in a more effective social security system; and steps to boost social housing and improve opportunities for income from employment. The research found that the single most cost-effective policy the government could take towards ending poverty is scrapping the two-child limit and benefit cap. This would immediately free 400,000 from poverty, and lift a total of 600,000 children out of poverty by 2030, at a cost of £3.9 billion per year.
One single mum to a four-year-old told Action for Children that she struggles financially as a care-leaver, battling childcare expenses and the high cost of living. ‘The impact of growing up in poverty is huge. It affected me physically, mentally and emotionally… Even though I worked as much as I could, before she went to school, I was in my overdraft every month and relying on Universal Credit just to pay for childcare so I could keep my job. That isn’t right.’
