The latest Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data for
2023-24 suggests that rates of relative child poverty, food
insecurity and absolute poverty have all risen for the third year
in a row – and puts further pressure on the Government to deliver
an ambitious promised Child Poverty Strategy, the Resolution
Foundation said today (Thursday).
Almost one-in-three (31 per cent, or 4.5 million) children in
Britain are now living in relative poverty, up from 27 per cent
(3.9 million) in 2020-21. A total of 12 million people in Britain
are living in absolute poverty, a slight increase from 2020-21
(from 17 to 18 per cent). Finally, the number of people living in
food insecure households has increased by 3.3 million, from 4.2
million people in 2020-21 to 7.5 million in 2023-24. While the
significance of year-to-year changes shouldn't be overstated, the
Foundation notes that the medium-term trends in key measures of
poverty are all troubling.
Meanwhile, separate data for Scotland shows that it has missed
its interim child poverty targets, with 23 per cent of children
in relative poverty in 2023-24, compared to a target of under 18
per cent – although the Foundation notes that there is
considerable uncertainty around this data. While this will be bad
news for Holyrood, the rates would be higher without the Scottish
Government's significant child poverty interventions.
The worrying increase in rates of poverty and food insecurity in
Britain should provide further impetus for the Government to
think big as it puts together its Child Poverty Strategy. This
will need to include abolishing the two-child limit and benefit
cap, which would take around 500,000 children out of poverty in
2029-30, at a cost of £4.5 billion. The Government should also
look at extending Free School Meal entitlement to all families on
Universal Credit and repegging Local Housing Allowance to local
rents.
Adam Corlett, Principal Economist at the Resolution
Foundation, said:
“The latest HBAI data is a stark reminder of the scale of
deprivation among families, with close to a third of children in
Britain now living in poverty. This is before any additional
impact from new benefit cuts and a weak living standards outlook,
which are set to reduce incomes across the poorest half of
working-age households by £500 over the next five years.
“These figures only increase the need for the Government to
deliver an ambitious new strategy to tackle child poverty,
including removing the two-child limit and benefit cap and
extending Free School Meals to far more families.”
