‘Terrible human cost’

A million more kids from working families will be living in poverty this year than in 2010, shocking new analysis shows.

Research from the TUC, conducted by Landman Economics, estimates that 3.1m kids from in-work households will be below the official breadline in 2018, compared to 2.1m in 2010.

Two thirds of kids living in poverty will come from single parent families, the report said.

The TUC highlighted a number of factors for the increase, including the spread of insecure work and stagnant wages.

The report shows that poverty in the West Midlands has increased by 66 per cent over the same period, while in Northern Ireland it has risen by 60 per cent.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady blasted the “terrible human cost” of frozen wages and austerity.

She said, “Child poverty in working households has shot up since 2010. Years of falling incomes and benefit cuts have had a terrible human cost. Millions of parents are struggling to feed and clothe their kids.

“The government is in denial about how many working families just can’t make ends meet. We need ministers to boost the minimum wage now, and use the social security system to make sure no child grows up in a family struggling to get by.”

Labour MP and shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said the report showed just “how damaging eight years of austerity has been for working families”.

Greenwood said a Labour government would “make tackling child poverty the priority it should be, reverse cuts to in-work support, scrap the public-sector pay cap and introduce a £10 per hour real living wage to ensure work always pays.”

Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner condemned the Tories’ record on child poverty.

“Tackling child poverty needs urgent action and the solutions are well within our grasp – now more than ever after the likely economic shocks of Brexit we need a complete break from the policies of austerity,” Turner said.

“We must have a policy of economic investment to grow decent, well-paid jobs and a comprehensive social security system – we need it for the sake of our children and their futures.”