Catherine McKinnell (Newcastle upon Tyne North) (Lab) I beg to
move, That this House has considered e-petition 604509, relating to
child bed poverty. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship,
Mr Paisley. The petition asks the Government to bring an end to
child bed poverty by creating a national sleep strategy. It states:
“Bed poverty is affecting educational outcomes for children across
the UK A national sleep strategy must resource local...Request free trial
(Newcastle upon Tyne
North) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered e-petition 604509, relating to
child bed poverty.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mr Paisley. The
petition asks the Government to bring an end to child bed poverty
by creating a national sleep strategy. It states:
“Bed poverty is affecting educational outcomes for children
across the UK
A national sleep strategy must resource local authorities to
identify, address and ultimately end bed poverty”.
When I was presented with the title of the petition, as part of
the Petition Committee’s normal deliberations, I was frankly
shocked. I could not help but question how bed poverty could be a
thing in our country, but after listening to the petitioner and
taking evidence on the issue, it evidently, and shockingly, is.
Here we are, just days away from Christmas, and it is utterly
depressing that some children will be saying to themselves, “All
I want for Christmas is a safe place to sleep.”
I express my admiration for the creator of the petition, Bex
Wilson. As well as being a hard-working deputy headteacher, Bex
has founded her own charity, Zarach, which provides beds for
children living in poverty in the Leeds area. I congratulate Bex
on the recent arrival of a healthy baby girl, Viola. I also thank
Buttle UK, End Furniture Poverty, the Sleep Charity, Orange Box
North East and a number of parents with lived experience of bed
poverty for sharing their insights and experience with me ahead
of the debate.
It is a distressing and shameful truth that in this country child
poverty has become a pervasive issue. More children than at any
other point in the last decade are growing up in households that
are unable to meet their most basic needs. The latest available
figures suggest that in 2021 3.9 million children across the UK
were living in poverty. Since then, uplifts to universal credit
and local housing allowance have been scrapped, inflation has
reached heights not seen in 40 years, and an absence of support
has pushed millions more families into desperate
circumstances.
To those who work on the frontline of crisis services, it is
undeniable that the figure of 3.9 million has been dwarfed by
reality, but child poverty is more than just a statistic; it is a
painful, grinding experience for each child living through it. It
means growing up in stressful households, going without the same
educational and development opportunities as their peers, going
to school hungry or spending their evenings in a cold and damp
home. For many children, it means not having a safe space to
sleep at night.
(Batley and Spen) (Lab)
In my constituency, the Batley & Birstall Excellence in
Schools Together group of 21 schools across Batley and Birstall
has identified at least 163 of its pupils who do not sleep in
their own bed. They either share with their siblings or sleep on
sofas or on the floor, which has a severe impact on their
educational attainment, development and family life. Charities
such as Zarach are incredible at providing beds for children in
need, including in my constituency, but does my hon. Friend agree
that those depressing statistics are a sad reflection of the
poverty in our communities, and that the Government must step up
to help those families and provide local authorities with the
funding that they need to eliminate child bed poverty?
I agree with everything that my hon. Friend said. The fact that
she has that statistic is progress in itself, because one of the
big challenges is that we do not know the level of this form of
poverty. It is a hidden truth that many households simply cannot
afford to provide each child with a bed of their own. On speaking
to families with the lived experience of bed poverty, I heard
some utterly heartbreaking stories: children sleeping on infested
sofa cushions because the only alternative was a wooden floor,
which we know would not provide support for their growing bodies;
children sharing a bed with their siblings, as my hon. Friend the
Member for Batley and Spen () said, none of whom have
privacy or can expect a night of undisturbed sleep; and children
sleeping in a bath because it was the only safe space for them to
rest. With all the resources, opportunities and potential that we
have in this country, I cannot believe that that is the start in
life that the Government think should be given to our
children.
Part of the problem, as I have mentioned, is that there are no
official figures that I can share with Members to convey the
scale of the problem. In 2018, Buttle UK estimated that around
400,000 children were going to sleep without a bed of their own.
That was in 2018, so we know that that figure is wholly
unrepresentative of the crisis that many families face today. The
ongoing economic tumult has already left households struggling to
put food on their plates and heat their homes. When the cost of
furniture has increased by 42% since 2010, the prospect of buying
a bed for every child is simply out of reach for some parents.
Rising financial hardship has combined with a plethora of
concerning trends to make the issue of bed poverty, which has
come to the attention of schoolteachers, particularly acute.
Sadly, the covid-19 pandemic saw a rise in cases of domestic
violence. As the increased number of mainly women fled abusive
partners, they were left with nothing but their children, and a
suitcase of clothes if they were lucky—no furniture and no money
to buy it with. Buttle UK has identified the pandemic as
generating a sharp rise in need. Within the first year, demand
for its grants increased by 70%, and the amount spent on beds
almost tripled.
Our country also faces a housing crisis in which the most
disadvantaged are particularly vulnerable. Families are moving to
unfurnished homes to try to save some rent just so that they can
keep a roof over their heads, but the idea that they can then
secure beds—big, bulky items—and new mattresses for each member
of the household and get them to an unfurnished property is out
of reach. Social housing rarely comes furnished.
End Furniture Poverty found that just 2% of social homes include
some form of furnishing compared with 29% of private rented
properties. Given that the purpose of social housing is to
accommodate the most vulnerable in our society, it seems the
crisis of bed poverty, although shocking on the surface, is
inevitable.
The scale of bed poverty is really concerning when we consider
how corrosive it is to a child’s life. For all of us here,
getting into our bed at the end of a long day is utter relief and
second nature—something we take completely for granted and that
we could not imagine going without. So it will come as no
surprise when I say that growing up in bed poverty has lifelong
consequences. At the most fundamental level, a bed is a safe
space for a child. It offers warmth, independence, privacy and
comfort, and it is especially important in high stress
households, which we know, when someone experiences poverty, is
how it can be.
A bed also provides a social function—a place for children to
have sleepovers and build their friendships at school. If that
bed is taken away, a child is further exposed to the anguish and
solitude that growing up in poverty can bring. Going without a
comfortable space to rest also leaves a child unable to sleep
properly.
As a mother of three, I know how irritable children can be when
they miss a good night’s sleep, but the effect of sleep
deprivation on a child’s wellbeing is far more detrimental than
just a day of being a bit grouchy. From low moods to persistent
feelings of helplessness and isolation, the mental health impact
of bed poverty is something that no young person should ever
experience. Parents can see that pain in their child. One mum
told Buttle UK’s Chances for Children campaign that her children
were
“angry and irritable and the two of them would argue all the time
because they were so tired. Both are bright and their schoolwork
suffered. They were constantly late for school”,
and one
“started to take time off because he was so exhausted. His mood
suffered and he started to get depressed.”
I also spoke to one mother who had experienced bed poverty and
was so grateful for the help that she received. After she
received the bed, sheets and pyjamas from a charity, she
described her child as becoming a different person overnight. It
was powerful to hear about that experience. Those parents share
their experiences, no matter how hard it is or how difficult it
is to admit that they found themselves in that situation, because
they do not want any child to go through that experience.
The importance of sleep does not stop at emotional regulation. It
is important for many physical and neurological processes that
allow children to function and grow in everyday life. It is
important for brain reorganisation, and it helps children to
focus and process thoughts throughout the day. Sleep is when
hormones are balanced, blood pressure lowered, the immune system
regulated and illnesses fought. It has even been associated with
a reduction in the risk of obesity and type 2 diabetes. All the
way down to the very smallest levels, a child’s cells and body
systems perform vital jobs during the stages of sleep. Michael
Farquhar, an NHS consultant in children’s sleep medicine,
stated:
“I describe sleep as like getting an MOT every night for your
brain and body…the longer you leave it the more problems it
causes.”
With the short-term challenges of sleep deprivation come the
lifelong consequences of bed poverty. Research has shown that
pupils who get more sleep perform better at maths, science and
reading—markers of educational attainment that the Government
tell us are vital for securing good jobs in the future. That is
because sleep helps children to solve problems, develop their
memory and learn effectively. How many times do we go to bed on a
problem and wake up with it solved? That is the power of sleep.
How can we expect a child to concentrate throughout a day of
education if their night was spent on a cold, hard floor, or in a
bath? That was a question Bex put to me after explaining the
backstory of her charity, Zarach. After discovering that one of
her pupils was living in a home without a bed, the difficulties
that she encountered in teaching conjugated verbs made more
sense.
Education has the power to improve opportunities and give young
people the ability to transform their lives, but for children
living below the poverty line it is their main hope of escaping a
lifetime of deprivation. The Government recognise that; one of
the levelling-up missions is for 90% of primary school age
children to achieve the expected standard in key stage 2 reading,
writing and maths by 2030. However, the Government stand by while
children are deprived of that one shot at education because they
do not get a decent night’s sleep. Even before the pandemic,
disadvantaged children were already 18 months behind their peers
at school, and covid-19 has exacerbated that attainment gap. That
distressing trend is continuing. The Sutton Trust recently
reported that 74% of the teachers it surveyed saw an increase in
pupils too tired and unable to concentrate in class. In what
universe can the Government claim to be levelling up when
increasing numbers of children are struggling at school because
they do not have a bed?
The Government have said that they are acting on the issue, and I
am sure that we will hear that from the Minister. In response to
the petition, they stated that there are several avenues of
support that are available to families affected by bed poverty.
One of those is the budgeting advance, which is a loan available
to universal credit and legacy benefit claimants—the only source
of direct Government support for the cost of essential furniture.
However, in evidence sessions, parents told me that the loans
condemn them to further poverty; although the loans might allow
them to buy a new mattress—at a cost of at least £100, I would
say—they are left hopelessly trying to pay them back on already
stretched and insufficient incomes. They are trapped in a cycle
of deprivation and debt.
Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government need to think
outside the box when it comes to bed poverty? I am fortunate to
have a fantastic range of bed manufacturers in my constituency of
Batley and Spen. I wonder whether the Government might consider
working with them on a scheme to help families who are
struggling. Does my hon. Friend agree that that is a good
suggestion?
The Government definitely need to think outside the box and take
responsibility for this issue, and I will come to why. My hon.
Friend points to what the charitable sector has been doing,
working with local bed manufacturers that are solving the problem
in very localised ways, but this is a national issue and it needs
a national response. That is the point that the Government really
need to listen to.
The anti-poverty charity Turn2us made a similar assessment,
identifying the 2013 conversion of the social fund grant into a
budgeting loan as the single biggest erosion of help for those
living without household appliances. Among those unable to access
the social security advances, there is an alarming trend of
parents becoming victim to predatory high-interest loan
organisations because they just cannot see any alternative to
securing a peaceful night’s sleep for their children. Rather than
giving a helping hand to families facing unimaginable hardship,
the means-tested and loan-based provision of support is pushing
families into even more desperate circumstances.
In response to the petition, the Government have said that
councils in England have been
“empowered to establish local welfare provision”,
which is another claim that seems detached from the reality. More
than a decade of austerity has had catastrophic consequence for
local authorities, and chronic underfunding has left them
permanently uncertain about their future and unable to deliver
the long-term, transformational policies that communities in
crisis need. This year’s autumn statement doubled down on the
trend, forcing yet another real-terms cut to local authority
budgets: needless to say, that has impeded the ability of
councils to address bed poverty.
End Furniture Poverty has consistently challenged the alarming
diminishment of local welfare assistance schemes across the
country. In November, it found that more than one in five local
authorities in England had closed their schemes, leaving over 14
million people without access to crisis support. Although the
Government are likely to indicate that the deficit has been
bridged by the household support fund, that does not offer hope
to children sleeping without a bed. With tight spending deadlines
and guidance provided at short notice, many local authorities
have been unable to develop the infrastructure needed to ensure
that they are meeting all areas of need.
Often the fund has been given as direct grants to people on
certain benefits, or to third-party organisations such as food
banks. Of course, I am not here to suggest that those are
ineffective or unsuitable ways for local authorities to
distribute the support fund—for a child, being well fed is just
as important as being well rested. However, it is indicative of
the insidious nature of child bed poverty, which, being largely
absent from public awareness, has become impossible to address,
despite the very best efforts of charities. I hope people realise
that it is a problem, which is why Bex and the supporting
petitioners are calling on the Government to create a national
sleep strategy.
Given that storing, transporting and providing beds poses a
number of financial and logistical challenges, the petitioners
fear that the funding will inevitably continue to be redirected
in order to prop up other frontline services. They therefore want
the Government to explicitly commit to end child bed poverty and
ensure that councils have the resources and capacity to do it. A
national sleep strategy also has the potential to address several
other related issues. For Orange Box North East, it could mean
developing the infrastructure needed to stop good-quality
pre-loved furniture going to landfill, and to divert it instead
to families in need of an affordable option. For The Sleep
Charity, it could provide much-needed education to an
increasingly sleep-deprived teenage population, which we know is
a big issue. How can we help children to develop healthy
behaviours around getting a good night’s rest if they do not even
have a bed to sleep in?
There are so many people with expert insight and the drive to
create a brighter future for our children, but if they are left
filling the void left by a Government who are failing to provide
children with a safe space to sleep at night, it is an
opportunity wasted. However, despite all the possibilities that a
national sleep strategy holds, my discussions with charities have
led me to one conclusion: until the Government finally step up
and commit to end child poverty with a joined-up and
cross-departmental approach, there will always be children
growing up without a bed.
It is absurd that our country is facing such desperation that
charities are being forced to compete over which symptom of child
poverty the Government should pay most attention to. It is not
enough to leave an overstretched and under-resourced third sector
relieving the physical manifestations of child poverty, nor to
repeat tired lines about the importance of getting parents into
work when 70% of children living below the poverty line come from
working households. Our children need a coherent,
cross-departmental anti-child poverty strategy matched with
ambition and investment. We need action on the social security
system, on insecure, low-paid work, on housing, on education, on
our early years sector and so much more. We need more than yet
another pot of funding for crisis support. Enough of the sticking
plasters, which simply patch over the trauma that is crippling
our country.
Despite its seeming normalisation, child poverty is not
inevitable. The last Labour Government proved that and turned the
figures around. Whether they are going without a bed, food, a
warm home or decent clothes, children will continue to be crushed
by the pressures of poverty until we see such a commitment from
the Government again.
I have a few questions for the Minister. Will he commit to
ensuring there is a definition of child bed poverty within
Government so that we understand and start to measure the extent
of the problem? Will he set out what work the Government have
undertaken with third sector organisations to understand the
level of child bed poverty in the UK? Will the Government review
regulations in the social housing sector to ensure that those
without access to furniture have some protection when they move
into a new property? Does he recognise the financial challenges
that loan-based support poses for families who are in hardship or
in crisis? Does he agree that the conversion from a grant was the
biggest erosion of help for those living without household
appliances, which is what it has been assessed as? Will he
consider the petitioners’ request for all local authorities to be
provided with dedicated resources to fund local schemes and
support families affected by the crisis of bed poverty? Does he
agree that child bed poverty is part of a much wider issue—the
scandalous level of child poverty in the UK? Will the Government
commit to a cross-departmental laser-focused strategy to
eradicate it urgently?
I recently visited a school in my constituency and spoke about my
preparations for this debate. I can still see the shock on the
faces of the pupils when they heard that there are children just
like them growing up without the safe space that so many take for
granted—a bed. A bed of their own is the bare minimum that we
should expect for every child in this country. I still cannot
believe that we are even having this debate. Even those pupils
knew that bed poverty is nothing short of a crisis, but it is
part of a much wider systemic problem under successive
Conservative Governments. We have seen child poverty increase in
this country. More and more children are growing up in households
without the very basics, whether it is food in their stomachs,
heating in their home, clothing on their backs or, as this
petition highlights, a bed.
It should be a source of immense shame that we have children
sleeping in the bath or on the floor, or sharing beds. As a
society, we are failing our children and taking away their
futures. The cost of living crisis continues to hit households in
the UK, which are facing double-digit inflation, so it is clear
that the problem is only going to get worse. The Government can
and must do much more. They are not a mere bystander to this
issue; they are our only hope of tackling it. With a laser focus
and a joined-up strategy, they can lift children out of poverty.
Only then can we be sure that all children will have a safe space
to lay their head at night. I really hope that the Minister hears
this call and that the Government finally take action on this
issue.
4.54pm
(Halifax) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Mr Paisley. I
thank my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North
() not only for her work
on the Petitions Committee, providing time for this petition and
making it a priority, but for starkly setting out the pervasive
nature of this type of poverty and how it affects children. I
join her in paying tribute to Bex Wilson, who started the
petition.
The debate has shone a light on how prevalent and stark bed
poverty is throughout the UK. According to the Department for
Work and Pensions’ households below average income survey from,
26% of children have parents who want to replace worn-out
furniture but cannot do so and 19% of children surveyed have
parents who want to have a bedroom for every child aged 10-plus
of a different gender, but also cannot afford to do so.
I recently spoke to Calderdale Lighthouse, which is a
volunteer-ran charity in my constituency. I pay tribute to Diane
Barker and her co-founders Donna and Emma, who do incredible work
supporting disadvantaged families. As the cost of living crisis
continues to bite, the charity has received an ever-constant
stream of requests in recent weeks for beddings and beds for
vulnerable families, in addition to the other support it
provides. In one instance, a health visitor for a family
consisting of a single parent—a mother—and two young children
found that neither child had a bed, and they asked if Calderdale
Lighthouse could provide some. In another case, Calderdale
Lighthouse provided blankets, duvets and hot-water bottles to a
family that had no gas or electricity and had taken to sleeping
in one room in an attempt to preserve heat.
On average, Calderdale Lighthouse receives a request for beds,
cots or toddler beds more than twice a week. It has seen
instances where victims of domestic violence choose to go back to
their abusive partners so that their children are not left cold
and without beds. There has been a number of cases where families
with young children with continence challenges have struggled to
provide them with the beds and bedding necessary. Charities such
as Calderdale Lighthouse provide an important lifeline for so
many people. Many of us cannot imagine sleeping in a proper bed
being a luxury, but for too many children, it is.
As well as creating unhealthy and dangerous living conditions,
bed poverty has a devastatingly long-term impact. The disruption
caused by not having a bed permeates through every aspect of a
child’s life and development. How can we possibly expect children
to learn, grow and realise their true potential if they come to
school exhausted and weighed down by a disrupted night’s sleep?
One of my constituents recently got in touch to powerfully
explain this problem. They said,
“I currently reside in a one bedroom flat on 15th floor, which is
not ideal. We are overcrowded, my son cannot develop to his full
potential in this tiny flat. He also needs his own bedroom as he
has trouble sleeping, meaning he’s disrupting my daughter.”
The link between child poverty and children’s outcomes is clear.
Data from 2014 showed that less than a third of Calderdale pupils
in my area who claim free school meals achieve five or more GCSEs
at grade C or above, including English and maths, compared with
nearly 60% of all pupils. Unfortunately, bed poverty is
symptomatic of a wider trend of growing poverty. Under this
Government, the proportion of children in poverty in my
constituency has steadily grown. According to the House of
Commons Library, 30% of children in Halifax live in relative
poverty—an increase of more than 6% since 2015. A further 25.8%
of children in Halifax live in absolute poverty. I want every
child to have the chance to fulfil their potential, but the cost
of living crisis on top of years of austerity has taken us back
to an almost Victorian era for some families.
Under this Government, work no longer represents a route out of
poverty. According to the Library, 65% of families in relative
poverty in Halifax are classified as in-work families. Bed
poverty is not seen by many in our society and, like my hon.
Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North, I frankly do not
receive direct contact about it, because it is hidden. Most of
the referrals to local charities like Calderdale Lighthouse come
via social workers and health visitors, who are required to
involve themselves in people’s lives and to visit homes. If they
were not there undertaking those roles, such deprivation would
probably go completely unseen, and I pay tribute to them for
being in those homes, for raising the alarm and for undertaking
that work day after day, which I can only imagine has an impact
on them as well.
The debate has shown that children up and down the country are
suffering in this way, hidden from the line of sight, in people’s
homes. The reality is that many children will go to bed in
insufficient conditions tonight. We can clearly see the
incredibly detrimental impact those conditions are having on
children’s broader outcomes. We all bring problems and injustices
to Parliament—that is part of our job. However, I say in all
honesty that this is one of the hardest speeches I have ever had
to write, prepare for and give, so heart breaking is the reality
of bed poverty.
5.00pm
(Luton North) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Mr Paisley. I
congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne
North () on her work on the
Petitions Committee and on introducing the debate so effectively,
passionately, knowledgably and sensitively. In common with
others, I thank Zarach as well as Crisis and Barnardo’s for their
supportive work.
We may be few in number in the Chamber today, but I know we speak
for many colleagues in expressing our distress over any child
going without the space and comfort to sleep. As we have heard,
children need sleep and a safe space to grow and learn. That is
essential for neurological development, absorbing what is taught
at school and building up a memory store for adulthood, a point
put well by my hon. Friend the Member for Batley and Spen (), where at least 163
children do not have a bed of their own. She highlighted the
horrific impact that that has on their education and emotional
wellbeing.
Sleep is as important to a healthy lifestyle as limiting fast
food and running around the park, but too often we can forget
that as we get older. Bed poverty is a hidden level of poverty,
and not something that parents, families or children are willing
to share; it is hidden away from sight. As any parent will know,
children’s sleep is crucial for our sanity too. Behaviour, along
with physical and mental health, is drastically impacted by the
amount and quality of sleep people get. Studies in China in 2021
found that the quality and length of sleep directly correlated
with levels of depression and anxiety later in adolescence.
Salient points have been made by hon. Members throughout the
debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North
talked about the scale of child poverty in this country, with 3.9
million children in poverty in 2022. That should shame any
Government, of any colour, into action. Bed poverty has a
horrific impact on a child’s education and wellbeing that ensures
that the cycle of poverty and deprivation continues. We need to
break that cycle for good.
My hon. Friend the Member for Halifax () pointed out the growing
levels of child poverty—we are seeing not a decline, but growing
levels of child poverty. In places such as Halifax, 30% of
children are growing up below the poverty line. The cost of
living crisis plus the pandemic and years of austerity have
created a perfect storm that allows child poverty to continue. As
we have heard, there has been a constant mantra—and almost a
guilting of parents—that work is the best route out of poverty,
but we know that millions of people go to work, do the right
thing and work all the hours that they can yet are still paid
below poverty wages. That is an absolute disgrace. My hon. Friend
is right to thank the charities and social workers who are the
backstop for families, but it should not be that way. I cannot
believe that in 2022, in the sixth richest country in the world,
we are talking about children going without beds.
I invite all Members, Mr Paisley, to picture a scene: a family
Christmas, with sparse food on the table, if there is indeed even
a table, mum and dad worried about paying the rent, grandparents
shivering in the cold and dark, kids sharing single beds,
sleeping on the sofa or even on the floor or in a bath tub. That
sounds Dickensian, but is in fact the prospect for too many of
our constituents as they face hard times this Christmas. In 2020,
Crisis estimated that 30% of families on the lowest income could
not afford a bed for their child. Will the Minister provide an
updated assessment of the figure as it stands now, after a
prolonged pandemic, energy price rises, rocketing inflation and a
catastrophic recession?
The housing crisis is nothing new, but its impacts are reaching
new heights. Last Christmas, 1,300 families with children were
living in unsuitable B&B accommodation over Christmas,
already a rise of 3% on the year before. Given the added
recession, will the Minister tell me how many more families with
children will be in temporary accommodation for Christmas 2022?
Is his Department investigating how many of them are living in
unsuitable, overcrowded conditions, perhaps also grappling with
dangerous levels of mould, damp and cold?
The gap between housing benefits and standard private rents is
also increasing. New research by Crisis found that fewer than one
in 12 homes advertised on Zoopla were affordable for renters
receiving housing benefit, compared with one in eight just five
months ago. With section 21 eviction notices still not banned
three years after their election on a manifesto that promised to
deliver that, the Government are only pushing more families into
homelessness and more children into bed poverty. When will we see
the ban on section 21 no-fault evictions? Do we have to wait for
a Labour Government to finally get rid of them?
The topic of the debate leaves us all asking why, in a country as
wealthy as ours, we are grappling with something as basic as
children not having the space to sleep. As with food poverty and
fuel poverty, bed poverty is just part of the wider scope of
deprivation in our allegedly world-leading country. If a parent
cannot afford to give their child space to sleep, it is unlikely
they are managing to comfortably pay their bills, feed them well
and provide for them as any parent would wish to do. As my hon.
Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North said, this level
of poverty leaves families teetering on the edge and still at the
mercy and prey of legal loan sharks.
Children’s charity Barnardo’s set up an emergency fund in October
to provide urgent support to children, young people and families
dealing with the cost of living crisis. Although originally
envisaged to help with food costs and energy bills, Barnardo’s
has already seen a concerning demand for beds and bedding. In my
constituency of Luton, our Labour council released a 2040 report
with a vision for where our town would be in two decades’ time.
The vision is not a shy one. We aim to eradicate poverty in our
town by 2040 and build a child-friendly town. I am proud of that
aim, as everybody within my local government should be. It is
bold, ambitious and inspirational, and it is everything local
government should be, but we have to contend with a Government in
power imposing 12 years of austerity on this country. Local
communities have to take matters into their own hands for the
sake of their people, but they are fighting a constant battle of
inflation, cuts and rising demand.
Local authorities have already lost 60p for every £1 of
Government funding since 2010, but I know they will fight tooth
and nail to support their residents in need, especially children.
When will our Government finally take responsibility for the
children they should be protecting and caring for? When will all
children have a safe bed to sleep in? I look forward to hearing
the Minister’s solution to the problem, as it is one we all want
to see solved. I hope that not too many families in the UK will
face cruel, cramped Christmases this year. Christmas is supposed
to be a time of hope. I genuinely hope that this Dickensian
Conservative-induced nightmare, with child poverty at the levels
we are seeing, finally comes to an end before another generation
is harmed.
5.08pm
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities ()
It is a pleasure to respond to the debate under your
chairmanship, Mr Paisley. I am grateful to all hon. Members who
have spoken. As the hon. Member for Luton North () said, we are small in number,
but I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the topic. I am
also grateful to the hon. Members for Halifax () and for Batley and Spen
() for their contributions,
and I thank the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North () for introducing the
debate.
As hon. Members already have, I want particularly to thank Bex
Wilson, founder of Zarach. The great work her and her colleagues
have done in West Yorkshire has been referenced on multiple
occasions. She highlights some of the challenges that she has
seen on a local level within Leeds and I accept that there are
challenges in other parts of the country as well. I pay tribute
to her organisation and its brilliant work to provide beds for
families who are struggling, especially for those with young
children.
As the hon. Member for Luton North said, we all share the same
end, which is not to have families or children who need support,
do not have access to beds and do not have the ability to have a
good night’s sleep, which we all benefit from and often need to
be able to make progress in the next day, week and month as we go
forwards in our lives. It is down to all the people who work day
in, day out to ensure that children can sleep safely and
comfortably in their own home that we have, I hope, made progress
over recent decades, whether as part of wider work to educate and
support or to ensure welfare is in place.
We absolutely agree that sleep is important. The hon. Member for
Luton North talked about a number of studies from China and
research has also been carried out by the University of Maryland
in the United States, which found that pre-teens who slept fewer
than nine hours a day had noticeable differences in brain
structure, mood and thinking compared with their peers who had
sufficient sleep each night. Although science will always be
developing in these areas, it is recognised that sleep is a
hugely important part of ensuring that people are ready for the
next day that they need to face.
We agree on the issue and that it exists—which it does, in
certain places. We might take different views on how much it
exists, and I accept the point that it is sometimes difficult to
understand the level of challenge, but the question is what we do
next. We all want to ensure that there is support for those who
are in need, and we want to find the best way to ensure that we
can cover that need. We want to highlight the amazing work of
volunteers from Zarach and wherever else such work is happening
in the country. I acknowledge their understandable concerns about
why, at times, the system does not work as perfectly or as well
as we would ideally like it to.
No system with hundreds of billions of pounds in it will work
perfectly. The job of Government is not to claim that the system
is perfect but to recognise that there are challenges, and try to
structure that system in a way that works while ensuring that we
do not change the way in which people work, operate and are
incentivised where they can resolve some of the issues
themselves—I recognise that not everybody can.
All that brings questions: ultimately, what do we do when we see
issues such as this; and secondarily, what is it proportionate
for the Government to do, and how should they respond when they
see such issues? The hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North
anticipated some of the points I am likely to make. A substantial
amount of work is going on across Government to provide a system
of support for vulnerable children and families, which I hope
includes the ability to tackle sleep deprivation and the drivers
behind it.
I will spend some time explaining how that work is broken down
between the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for
Education and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and
Communities, in which I serve, and why, given the plethora of
initiatives across multiple Departments, we do not think that a
national sleep strategy is the way to go at this time. A
substantial amount of work is already under way that we hope is
helping in this difficult and challenging area.
I will start with the top line, which is about tackling poverty;
it is the question with which the hon. Member for Newcastle upon
Tyne North ended her speech. We recognise that there are often
multiple, complex reasons why families find themselves in
poverty. The hon. Lady suggested that the Government are a mere
bystander, which is difficult to evidence given what we are
doing. This year, we will spend the best part of a quarter of a
trillion pounds—£245 billion—through the welfare system to tackle
such causes head on, recognise that there are vulnerable people
out there and ensure that people have the support they need. That
includes about £110 billion of support for people of working age,
who are the most likely to have children.
I want to challenge the Minister on his statement. I did not say
that the Government were a bystander; I said that they were not a
bystander on this issue and they have the power to do something
about it. The concern is that, for everything the Government may
be doing, they are also the architect of the problem. That is my
view and the view of many in this area. I appreciate all the
initiatives the Minister is outlining, but they are clearly not
solving the problem.
I am grateful for that clarification, and I apologise if I
inadvertently suggested something that I did not intend to. I was
merely trying to contextualise. The hon. Lady accepted that a
substantial amount of work is going on. That needs to be
acknowledged and contextualised within the wider discussion.
There is such a substantial amount of work going on—I will go
into that in a moment—that the challenge is knowing how best to
approach things. I will try to address a number of the
suggestions outlined by the hon. Lady and her colleagues.
It is important to acknowledge that a substantial amount of money
is going into the issue. This has been a relatively well-regarded
debate and I do not seek to make it particularly political, but,
given the multiple references to austerity, I have to highlight
that some of the difficult decisions that we have had to take
over the last 12 years have been as a direct result of pre-2010
spending. We need to acknowledge that our decisions have
trade-offs and consequences, and we are still living with those
consequences a decade or so later, despite the fact that in
absolute terms we are spending substantially more money than we
were a decade or so ago. [Hon. Members: “Such nonsense!”]
We are going to spend over £245 billion through the welfare
system this financial year, and £110 billion to support people of
working age. That builds on wider efforts to lift more people out
of poverty and to support those who have been highlighted in this
debate. There were 1.2 million fewer people living in absolute
poverty in 2020-21 than in 2009-10, including 200,000 fewer
children, 500,000 fewer working-age adults and 400,000 fewer
pensioners. That is not to take away from the challenges we face
today, particularly the cost of living, but it is important to
contextualise where we are.
In response to the global challenges we are facing, the
Government have provided £37 billion of emergency support this
year, and we are putting in place more help over the coming
months. In the autumn statement, £26 billion of cost of living
support was announced as a taxpayer subsidy for 2023-24, meaning
that from next year households on eligible means-tested benefits
will receive up to a further £900 in cost of living payments.
From April next year, we are also uprating benefits for
working-age households and disabled people, as well as the basic
and new state pensions, by over 10%. Benefit cap rates will be
increased by the same amount.
Just today, in the local government finance settlement we have
announced a further £100 million of support for people who are
deemed to be the most vulnerable, including a discretionary
element that gives local authorities around the country where
there are challenges—whether they are to do with access to beds
or something else—additional funds to be able to close those gaps
and ensure people have the things they need.
Crucially, there is also a dedicated household support fund,
overseen by the Department for Work and Pensions, that councils
in England can use to help families struggling with essential
household costs, including the purchase of new beds and
mattresses. A further £1 billion is going into that fund over the
next financial year. Nearly £850 million will be distributed in
England, and the remainder will be distributed in the devolved
nations according to the Barnett formula. That will mean we have
allocated £2.5 billion of taxpayer subsidies since October
2021.
Crucially, local authorities will have the freedom to allocate
funds according to the needs in their communities. Given the
acknowledgement by the Opposition that this issue is difficult to
assess or even find, which was one of the points made a moment
ago, the best way that we can respond to challenges that are
hidden or semi-hidden is to provide both funds, which we have
done, and the freedom to allocate those funds in the most
proportionate and reasonable way in communities, driven by
representatives in communities themselves, including the kind of
councils that the hon. Member for Luton North highlighted, which
are setting an agenda and making important decisions for their
local area.
Some of the referrals coming through to local charities in
Halifax relate to families involved in providing kinship care,
which is where family members—often at short notice—take over
responsibility for caring for a very young child as a member of
their family.
Will the Minister, as part of his cross-departmental work and the
Government’s response to the MacAlister review, which looks at
the responsibilities of kinship carers and the support they
deserve, specifically look at the support required by kinship
carers? Will he look at what else can be done to support families
in such situations when financial support is not a part of the
package because of a variety of barriers, so that the children in
those circumstances do not go without beds?
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for highlighting the hugely
important matter of kinship carers, which I know all Members will
have an interest in and experience of; I certainly have, having
spoken to constituents at length about these issues. It is an
immensely challenging area to know how to get right. Of course,
ideally in the first instance there would not be a need for such
care, but this is life and there always is such a need. Where
there are challenges, we want to keep young children as close as
possible to their families and friends, who they know and
understand. That will inevitably mean people take over at short
notice caring responsibilities that they may not have
anticipated. There is a very difficult challenge about knowing
how to balance that. I will certainly pass on the hon. Lady’s
comments to my colleagues in the Department for Education, who
are leading on the MacAlister review and the response to it, and
ask them to consider specifically her point about kinship care in
that work, where possible.
I return to the point about freedom. Twenty-three councils have
already put on record that they are using their funds to provide
beds, bedding and blankets to vulnerable residents. Havering, for
example, has already partnered with local retailers to supply
beds, white goods and other essential household items to
struggling families. At the other end of the country in
Blackburn, the council has been working hard on the provision of
new high-quality beds for children under the age of seven.
Additional discretionary support funds are available where
necessary.
I will touch on the broader point about supporting families. The
supporting families programme operates between the Department for
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which I am a Minister
within, and the Department for Education. It seeks to help
councils do exactly what I have just mentioned—co-ordinate help
for families to overcome multiple and complex problems.
Supporting families funding is allocated to authorities based on
levels of deprivation and the number of families in the local
population; put simply, more deprived areas receive more funding.
The programme can help with some of the drivers of financial
insecurity and the knock-on effects, such as those we are talking
about today. It can help to address mental health, drug or
alcohol problems, or issues such as finding work and keeping
children in school. There was a 40% cash uplift for this
programme in the Budget, which should mean that 300,000 families
are covered over the coming period.
There is a role for schools and the Department for Education, as
this is not just about council officers working with individual
families; schools play an important role in identifying pupils
who may not be getting enough sleep at home. That is why we are
here today and why Bex Wilson has set up the charity, after her
experience while teaching in Leeds.
Through the publication of the special educational needs and
disabilities and alternative provision Green Paper, the schools
White Paper and our response to the MacAlister review, we are
creating a system that seeks firmly to work in the interests of
vulnerable children and young people. We know that vulnerable
children are more absent from school than their peers. In autumn
last year, a third of all pupils eligible for free school meals
missed more than 10% of school sessions, and nearly one in 10
pupils eligible for free school meals missed more than 10% of
possible school sessions for unauthorised other reasons, compared
to only 3% of their peers.
The pupil premium will provide over £2.5 billion in 2022-23 to
help schools improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged
pupils, which can be used to support social, emotional and
behavioural needs, and approaches to improve attendance. Every
local authority in England must appoint a virtual school head,
who have a statutory duty to promote the educational achievement
of children in their care.
I am grateful to Bex Wilson, Zarach and all those who have raised
this important issue, and to the hon. Members who have spoken
today. Across the House there is an absolute commitment to, and
understanding of, the challenges we have debated. I hope that
everybody, even if they disagree with the proposal that I put
forward on behalf of the Government, recognises that a
substantial amount of work has been done in the area, and there
is a substantial amount of funding and taxpayer support. We all
want to achieve the same ends and recognise various challenges.
We are grateful for the work done by those who have highlighted
this issue. I hope we can continue to make progress in the coming
years, while continuing to debate the best approach.
5.26pm
I thank hon. Friends who have contributed to the debate, both
from the Labour Front Bench and Back Benches. I would thank the
Minister for his response, but I expected more. It is very
concerning that the Government do not seem to recognise that
there is an issue, nor commit to understanding the extent of that
issue. All we have heard is a list of actions that they are
apparently undertaking, but that are clearly not solving the
problem.
One mother who spoke to me when I was taking evidence for this
debate said that, as a child, she had fled with her mother from
domestic violence. She remembers how traumatic that was, but when
they moved she said she felt cushioned by a state that supported
them into a new home. She does not remember not having a bed when
she was growing up. She remembers being looked after and
supported in what was clearly a traumatic situation. She has
faced that again herself—she has fled domestic violence with her
children—and she was shocked at how little support there has
been; there was nothing for them. They managed to secure a house,
but it had no furniture in it. She said they have lived with one
lightbulb, which they move from room to room, and no beds for the
children.
It is the charity sector that has helped them, not the
Government. That is the case up and down the country. Food,
clothing, housing and furniture are being provided by the
charitable sector, not by the state. People in the most desperate
circumstances no longer have a safety net. As much as the
Government and the Minister have set out the support they might
be giving, it is clearly not working. It is clearly not reaching
the right people.
I did not intend to say that at the end of this debate. I have
been quite moved by the evidence I have heard, but I am left not
angry, but I think a bit despondent, by the Minister’s response.
I hoped that the Government, of all things, would want to tackle
children without beds—would want to know how many children do not
have a bed and discuss how we can solve that. Obviously, whatever
the Government are doing is not working, because the number is
growing not reducing. But that is anecdotal; we do not actually
know, because the Government have not found out or even asked the
question.
I would like to see the Government go away and think harder about
this issue. It is about not just those individual children but a
lifetime cycle of sleep deprivation that results in adult mental
health issues, because if someone has not slept well as a child
they will have that for the rest of their life. It will affect
their education, mental health, development and wellbeing. Surely
we want to put a stop to that, and ensure the basics of having a
bed and somewhere safe to sleep. I hope the Government go away
and think again. I appreciate that it is not all down to the
Minister. The fact that we were not quite sure who was going to
respond to the debate is telling of the Government’s lack of
focus on child poverty as a whole.
The Department for Education has an interest in children. The
Department of Health and Social Care should have an interest in
children’s health and wellbeing. The Department for Levelling Up,
Housing and Communities, and local government, should have an
interest in ensuring that support is delivered at a local level.
The Department for Work and Pensions looks after those households
that need extra support. None of them appears to be talking to
each other to develop a holistic strategy to ensure that more
children do not fall into poverty, that they have a bed to sleep
in and that we finally turn this around. I really hope the
Government listen. If they will not, I really hope this country
votes in a different Government who will.
(in the Chair)
I thank for that impassioned
wind-up.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House has considered e-petition 604509, relating to
child bed poverty.
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