Three in 10 children in the UK are living in poverty, according to record high government figures branded a “source of national shame”.
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) data revealed on Thursday that the number of impoverished youngsters in Britain soared by 200,000 from 4.3 million to 4.5 million between 2023 and 2024.
It comes after the DWP admitted on Wednesday by its own estimates that 250,000 more people, including 50,000 children, could fall into poverty by 2029/2030 following Rachel Reeves’s sweeping welfare cuts and spring statement.
The chancellor vowed to slash £6.4bn from benefits spending by the end of the decade by making it harder to claim personal independent payments and cutting universal credit.
The DWP impact assessment said 3.2 million families – including current and future benefit claimants – will lose an average of £1,720 a year due to the changes.
But Ms Reeves rejected the findings and insisted plans to get people into work would lead to “fulfilling careers paying decent wages”.
“That is the best way to lift families out of poverty,” she added.
“I want more people to benefit from the security, the dignity, the extra money that comes from having a job. We want people to move into secure, well-paid employment, and we’re going to give people the support to get there.”
A child is defined as living in poverty if their household earns below 60 per cent of the UK median income – currently £37,430 – which is £22,500 after housing costs.
There are 14.6 million children living in the UK, according to the DWP, with the latest figures showing the highest increase in child poverty since records began in 2002/2003.
Welfare charity Save the Children UK slammed the UK’s increase in child impoverishment as a “source of national shame” and warned Labour risked overseeing a huge increase in child poverty.
The charity’s director Dan Paskins said: “These figures are a source of national shame. The rise in child poverty to 4.5 million – the highest figure on record – is a direct consequence of political choices.
“The government must take immediate action to ensure more children do not fall into poverty next year. If they don’t, this could be the first Labour government that oversees a significant rise in child poverty – a record no one wants.”
The DWP data also showed that more than a quarter (28 per cent) of children in the UK were estimated to be living in material deprivation in 2023/2024.
This means some 4.2 million children were estimated to lack access to four or more items or activities such as three meals a day, school trips and a place for homework.
Almost a fifth – 18 per cent or 2.3 million – of children in the UK were living in a food insecure household, meaning they faced a risk of, or lack of access to, sufficient, varied food.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero figures also revealed more than one in 10 households faced fuel poverty and struggled to pay bills last year.
The 2.7 million homes come under having a poor energy efficiency rating of band D or below, and their disposable income after housing and fuel costs is below the poverty line.
The End Child Poverty coalition said the latest data on child poverty should be seen as a “stark warning” to the government that action is needed, adding the record high numbers of children in poverty “isn’t the change people voted for”.
Oxfam added the figures were “as damning as they are heartbreaking”. Silvia Galandini from the charity said: “It is morally repugnant that children, disabled people and carers are the ones who are taking the hit.
“It is unconscionable that the government is cutting social security while wilfully ignoring the huge potential revenue of a tiny tax on the super-rich, one that is overwhelmingly backed by the British public.”
Meanwhile, the DWP data showed the total number of people in the UK estimated to be living in poverty was down slightly to 14.25 million in 2023/2024, from 14.32 million in the previous 12 months.
The figure stood at a record 14.46 million in 2019/2020.
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