Babes below the breadline

More than half of all children in the UK’s poorest areas are living in poverty because of government cuts, according to a new report.

Figures analysed by the End Child Poverty charity show that over the past two years kids in the most deprived areas have been shouldering the brunt of rising inequality.

For the first time in recent years, children in four inner-city constituencies – already identified as some of the poorest in Britain – are now more likely to grow up in poverty.

Two of the constituencies have seen poverty rates grow by 10 per cent over the last 24 months.

In 13 other poor constituencies child poverty – which affects 30 per cent of the nation’s young people – hovers between 44 and 49 per cent.

Government cuts to children’s benefits and the cost of living crisis are responsible for the “growing” problem, End Child Poverty said.

“It is scandalous that a child born in some parts of the UK now has a greater chance of growing up in poverty, than being in a family above the breadline,” said chairman Sam Royston.

“There can be little doubt that the government’s policy of maintaining the benefits freeze despite rising prices is a major contributor to the emerging child poverty crisis.”

Areas of London and Birmingham have the worst child poverty rates, with more than 50 per cent of children in the capital’s Bethnal Green and Bow and Poplar and Limehouse constituencies living in poverty.

More than half of children in Birmingham’s Hodge Hill and Ladywood constituencies also live in poverty.

In contrast, the Prime Minister’s Maidenhead constituency has one of the lowest levels of child poverty in the country at 13.6 per cent.

‘Government is responsible’

Head of Unite Community Liane Groves said, “This government is responsible for the fact that more than half of children in some areas are growing up in poverty.

“It says it all when the entire social mobility commission team – Tory and Labour alike – resign over Theresa May’s abject failure to deliver on her promise to build a ‘fairer Britain’.”

According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, child poverty – encompassing those in a family unit surviving on less than 60 per cent of the median household income – are set to rocket over the next five years.

Groves said the Tories have done nothing to tackle the stagnant wages and rising costs that are fuelling child poverty.

“As if that wasn’t bad enough, they have actively made the situation worse through their savage attacks on social security,” she added.

“Building an economy that works for everyone, rather than the richest few, is unfortunately too much to expect from a Conservative administration. But at the very least, the Tories must immediately end the benefit freeze and restore a modicum of desperately needed relief for struggling families.”