Key facts
- Nearly one third of children in the UK are growing up in poverty, despite living in a wealthy country.
- Poverty does not fall equally: Black children, pupils with SEND, looked after children and young carers are all more likely to experience poverty.
- Schools and staff increasingly step in to meet basic needs, including food, clothing and emotional support, stretching already limited resources.
- Poverty widens attainment gaps from the early years through to key stage five and affects attendance, concentration and behaviour.
- Most children in poverty live in working households, showing that low pay, insecure work and inadequate social security are key drivers.
- The two-child limit and the benefit cap push hundreds of thousands of children into deeper poverty.
Key statistics
- Around 31% of children in the UK, equivalent to nine in a typical class of thirty, are living in poverty.
- About 4.5 million children are growing up in poverty, the highest figure since records began.
- 42% of pupils with SEND and an education, health and care plan are eligible for free school meals, compared with 24.6 per cent of all pupils.
- 87% of teachers have seen pupils showing signs of tiredness or fatigue in school due to poverty, rising to ninety-two per cent in the most deprived areas.
- Seven in ten children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one adult is in work.
- Every day, the two-child limit is estimated to push around 109 additional children into poverty.
- Scrapping the benefit cap would mean around 300,000 children living in less deep poverty.
- Abolishing both the two-child limit and the benefit cap would immediately lift around 400,000 children out of poverty, rising towards 600,000 by 2030, and leave around 950,000 children in less deep poverty.
- Child poverty is estimated to cost the UK economy around £40bn each year.
Campaign asks
- Scrap the two-child limit and the benefit cap as a matter of urgency to reduce child poverty and hardship.
- Increase social security entitlements for families with children so that incomes are adequate to meet basic needs.
- Invest in affordable housing, childcare and decent work so that employment is a genuine route out of poverty.
- Target additional resources at schools and communities serving the highest proportions of children in poverty.
- Develop a cross-government child poverty strategy with clear targets, timelines and accountability mechanisms.