The latest Household below average income statistics, published today, show 400,000 more children are living in absolute poverty compared to 2020/21.
According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), the rise in absolute poverty is the joint highest increase in the statistic for 40 years (since 1982) and is the same increase that was seen following the global financial crisis (between 2010/22 and 2011/12).
Absolute income poverty is where households have less than 60 per cent of the median income in 2010/11, uprated by inflation.
The data also shows food insecurity has risen dramatically, increasing from 4.7 million people (7 per cent) in 2021/22 to 7.2 million (11 per cent) in 2022/23.
'The Government failed to protect the most vulnerable from the cost-of-living crisis'.
Peter Matejic, chief analyst at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), said, ‘The annual poverty figures published today confirm that the Government failed to protect the most vulnerable from the cost -of-living crisis. Absolute poverty, the Government’s preferred measure of poverty, has risen for the second year in a row. This is as big as we have seen for 40 years.
‘The Government’s short-term interventions to date haven’t stopped the incomes of poorer households from being swallowed up by the soaring cost of essentials. This is despite Jeremy Hunt speaking of his commitment to protect the most vulnerable in his Autumn Statement in 2022. These results show just how far away our social security system is from adequately supporting people who have fallen on hard times.
‘The prospects for people on the lowest incomes should be at the forefront of politicians’ minds as we head into a general election. We need all political parties to treat this rise in poverty with the seriousness it deserves at the coming general election and set out an ambitious plan to reverse it. This must involve embedding an essentials guarantee into universal credit to ensure that everyone has a protected minimum amount of support to afford essentials’.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union ( NEU), commented, ‘It should not be the case that the fifth richest country in the world has such alarming figures on child poverty figures.
‘In a general election year, any future government must act swiftly to ensure that no child is left behind. We urgently need a child poverty strategy setting out clear policy objectives to tackle the prevalence of child poverty. They could start with the removal of the punitive two-child limit and the expansion of free school meals to all children attending primary schools nationwide.’