One in seven West Berkshire children living in poverty, report reveals
The report released by charity End Child Poverty on Wednesday revealed that 14 per cent of children - a four per cent increase on last year - living in the parliamentary constituency of Newbury were living in child poverty.
The charity classified those living in child poverty as a child under 18 years of age in families receiving out-of-work benefits, or in-work tax credits, where the reported income for an average family was less than 60 per cent of the national median income.
It also used regional trends in unemployment to estimate the number of low income families in each area.
The report says that child poverty damages childhood and harms a child’s future life chances. It draws on a previous study by Save the Children which revealed that some 61 per cent of parents had cut back on food, 26 per cent had skipped meals, 19 per cent had not replaced children’s outgrown shoes or winter coats (14 per cent), 19 per cent of children had missed school trips and 80 per cent of parents were borrowing to make ends meet.
Newbury’s figure was lower than those of nearby areas such as Reading West, 22 per cent, and Basingstoke, 17 per cent, but higher than those of Windsor, 11 per cent, and Oxford West and Abingdon, 12 per cent.
End Child Poverty said local authorities needed to protect families with children when making decisions about local benefits by deciding who should receive support when paying council tax and housing costs.
They should also ensure child poverty was a priority for health and wellbeing boards and should publish a child poverty strategy.
Spokesman for End Child Poverty, Tim Nichols, said the most likely cause for a change in figures was down to changes in the local labour market and said: “We want these figures to help local authorities address the issues of child poverty.”
West Berkshire’s Executive Member for Children and Young People, Irene Neill (Cons, Aldermaston), said that there was a council strategy for addressing child poverty in place, but conceded that because of the recession it was proving difficult to implement.
The End Child Poverty campaign is formed of a coalition of over 100 charities committed to ending child poverty in the UK as, on average, one in five children across the UK (20.2 per cent) are classified as below the poverty line before housing costs.
Chair of the campaign, Enver Soloman, said: “Whilst the levels of deprivation in the South East are not as high as other parts of the country, there are still far too many children whose parents are struggling to make a living and are having to go hungry and miss out on the essentials of a decent childhood that all young people should be entitled to.”
UK Head of Policy for Save the Children, Chris Wellings, said that the impact of the recession on families in the area had made an impact on the figures.
Mr Wellings said: “We think this figure is unacceptable and that this is about the availability of good quality jobs and the extortionate cost of child care.”
When asked about assessing child poverty based on housing costs, an issue greatly affecting West Berkshire, Mr Wellings said that assessing poverty after housing would be a better way of measuring child poverty as it would give a better indication of parents disposable income.
