Last week’s official Households Below Average Income data shows UK child poverty is on the rise: 200,000 more kids moved into poverty in 2014-15, taking the total to 3.9 million. That’s at least nine children in every class of 30.
Two-thirds of poor children live in working families (up from 62 per cent). And projections for the future are bleak: independent experts such as the IFS and the Resolution Foundation forecast UK child poverty will surge by 50 per cent or more by 2020.
Given the choices the Government has made on taxes and benefits, the projections should not surprise us. Last year’s summer Budget cuts tore into Universal Credit. And key provisions of the Welfare Reform and Work Act, which received Royal Assent this spring, will strip families of core income.
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