{"id":7228,"date":"2015-12-23T14:15:18","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T14:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7228"},"modified":"2016-01-05T15:05:37","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T15:05:37","slug":"invisible-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7228","title":{"rendered":"Invisible children"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

The Tory government has taken an innovative approach in reducing child poverty.<\/p>\n

 
\nInstead of maintaining a target set by the last Labour government to eliminate child poverty by 2020, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changing the definition of poverty altogether.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Welfare Work and Reform bill goes through, then income level will no longer be an indicator of poverty. That is to say, how much a family earns will no longer be used to measure whether their children are going hungry or cold.<\/p>\n

 
\nReplacing income, the most obvious measure of poverty, will be indicators called \u00e2\u20ac\u015blife chances\u00e2\u20ac\u0165, which will look at whether both parents are in work, how well children perform on their GSCEs, or whether parents abuse drugs or alcohol.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe government has also moved to change the Child Poverty Act, the Labour-led legislation that aims to eliminate child poverty in five years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time, in effect nullifying the set target.<\/p>\n

 
\nRebecca Stephens is a mother of two who argues that the new \u00e2\u20ac\u015blife chances\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 indicators will mean children like hers will fall through the cracks.<\/p>\n

 
\nBoth Rebecca and her husband work full-time \u00e2\u20ac\u201c she works 33 hours a week as a teaching assistant and her spouse works 44 hours a week as a boat builder. Still, they struggle to make ends each month.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI dread Christmas,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 says Rebecca, who has started a petition urging the House of Lords to bring back the original child poverty target. The petition has reached 45,000 and continues to climb.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI hate it when I notice their trainers have got a hole in, or they bring another letter home from school needing money for a trip. Food seems to be the only expense we have immediate control over, so that budget gets squeezed, and our home isn’t as warm as we would like through the winter.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nRebecca notes also that her daughter, 14, is set to do really well on her GCSEs \u00e2\u20ac\u201c another measure that, under the Tory proposals, would mean her children are not struggling in poverty.<\/p>\n

 
\nA study from the London School of Economics<\/a> explains why income levels are such an important measure when assessing poverty.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe findings are clearest and strongest for cognitive development and school achievement, with social and behavioural development close behind,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 researchers said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIn part the causal effect reflects the fact that money enables parents to buy things that children need to flourish \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more nourishing food, warmer clothes, books, toys and outings.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the stress of managing on a very low income is also an important issue,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 they added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bConstantly worrying about money reduces the extent to which parents are able to focus on and engage with their children. As any parent will testify, parenting well and positively is much harder under conditions of stress or anxiety.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bNot measuring income poverty, then, while professing concern about life chances, is little short of bizarre,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 the researchers went on to say.<\/p>\n

 
\nCurrently, the Welfare Work and Reform Bill, which will introduce the changes to child poverty targets and indicators, is passing through the House of Lords.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite campaigns officer Chantal Chegrinec condemned the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s planned legislation.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bInstead of following through with child poverty targets that they explicitly supported a decade ago, the Tories are abandoning these targets by moving the goalposts and changing the definition of poverty altogether,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is only the latest in a slew of government sleights of hand since they were elected in May,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Chegrinec added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt follows on from the so-called National Living Wage that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no living wage at all, from rushed through boundary changes that could lock Labour out of power for decades, from the Trade Union bill which will silence the voice of working people.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut we can hold this government to account if we stand up collectively and have our say \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what caused the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s climb down over tax credits and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what can stop this attack on children, many in working households, who are struggling just to survive.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nRebecca who is sending her petition in conjunction with Child Poverty Action group to the House of Lords, agreed.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe know from the Tax Credits defeat that the House of Lords are not afraid to say no!\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Rebecca notes in the petition. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe have an opportunity to change things \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if we act now and tell the Lords to make sure the Government keep child poverty targets.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nSpare a thought for the hundreds of thousands of children in the UK who, far from even getting Christmas presents this year, will instead go hungry.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bill goes through, these children will continue to live in poverty well past the holiday season, because instead of getting the support they need, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be made entirely invisible.<\/p>\n

 
\nSign the petition here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Tory government has taken an innovative approach in reducing child poverty.   Instead of maintaining a target set by the last Labour government to eliminate child poverty by 2020, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s changing the definition of poverty altogether.   If the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Welfare Work and Reform bill goes through, then income level will no longer be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,174,347,372],"wps_subtitle":"No cheer this year for kids in poverty","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7228"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7229,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7228\/revisions\/7229"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}