The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) report reveals there has been an 88 per cent increase in the number of children experiencing destitution since 2019.
Since 2017, the number of children experiencing destitution has almost tripled – an increase of 186 per cent – according to the JRF.
People are considered destitute if they have not been able to meet their most basic physical needs to stay warm, dry, clean and fed. This can be because they either lack necessities like clothing, heating, shelter or food. Or because their income is so extremely low that they are unable to purchase these items for themselves.
Other key findings from the report include:
- Around 3.8 million people – including around a million children – experienced destitution in 2022.
- The number of lone parents experiencing destitution close to tripled between 2019-2022. This means that 11 per cent of all households in the UK who experienced destitution in 2022 were lone parent households.
- 72 per cent of destitute households are in receipt of benefits, 56 per cent report receiving income from Universal Credit.
- Around 12 per cent of households experiencing destitution in 2022 were black, black British, Caribbean or African-led, despite comprising just 4 per cent of the population.
- Over half of destitute households (57 per cent) have a weekly income of less than £85 a week. More than a quarter (27 per cent) have no income at all.
- The rate of destitution has risen more quickly in Wales than anywhere else since 2019, with the exception of London.
- Over half of people experiencing destitution have problem debts or arrears.
According to the JRF, a combination of extremely low incomes, a threadbare social security system, the increasing cost of bare essentials and high levels of debt led to the rapid increase in destitution.
It says the sharp rise in destitution reflects an increase in the number of people lacking basic necessities, especially food and heating.
Recommendations
JRF is calling on all political parties to make tackling destitution a priority and set out their plans to reverse the rise in hardship. It says that Universal Credit should, at a minimum, always enable people to afford essentials. But right now, it’s not even protecting people from destitution.
It wants the UK Government to introduce an ‘Essentials Guarantee’ into Universal Credit to ensure that everyone has a ‘protected minimum’ amount of support to afford essentials like food and household bills. This would mean that deductions from benefits, such as those to repay debts to the Government, would not be allowed to reduce support below this level.
While working towards this, the JRF says the Government should lower the current limits on benefit deductions, reform sanctions and ensure that people can access the disability benefits they are entitled to.
'Such severe hardship should have no place in the UK today'
Paul Kissack, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said, ‘Across our country we are leaving families freezing in their homes or lacking basic necessities like food and clothing. Such severe hardship should have no place in the UK today – and the British public will not stand for destitution on this scale.
‘The Government is not helpless to act: it is choosing not to. Turning the tide on destitution is an urgent moral mission, which speaks to our basic humanity as a country, and we need political leadership for that mission. That is why we are calling for clear proposals from all political parties to address this challenge with the urgency it demands.’
Imran Hussain, director of policy and campaigns at Action for Children, said,‘A million UK children living in the most abject poverty is a disgrace that should shame us all.
He said they had distributed over £2m in emergency grants for food and other essentials to over 30,000 children and their families in the past three years. 'But it shouldn’t be up to charities like ours to fill the cracks in our country’s safety net.
‘The Chancellor must deliver on his manifesto promise to use the benefits system to reduce child poverty. He needs to both protect benefits from inflation and boost targeted help to our poorest children.'
The research was carried out by the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE), Heriot-Watt University in partnership with Kantar Public. It was funded by JRF.
Data for the report comes from in 18 locations across the UK, including a survey of 3,702 users of 111 crisis services (in October/November 2022).
This was combined with in-depth interviews with 31 survey respondents in May and June 2023, all of whom were experiencing destitution at the time they completed the survey.