The child poverty figures published today paint a stark picture.
One in five British children live below the poverty line. Across Birmingham it is up to three in ten – and in parts of the constituency it is as high as four in ten. This poverty cripples a child’s chance to lead a happy and healthy life and makes it so much harder for them to reach their potential.
You would think the government would make tackling child poverty a key priority. Instead they are making life harder for working families already struggling to get by – with their unfair attack on tax credits and working benefits this April. The government’s own assessment predicts that these changes will push another 200,000 children into poverty. And this comes on top of the 800,000 increase expected as a result of the government’s other welfare cuts.
I am proud that the last Labour government took one million children out of poverty and committed to end child poverty by 2020.
It is a disgrace that, in contrast, by 2020 this Conservative-led government is set to force one million more children into poverty.
