Members of the Department for Work and Pensions are set to quiz Children’s Commissioners on the issue of increasing child poverty across the UK.
To give context into the severity of the situation, the latest statistics show, last year 31% of all children living in the UK – the equivalent to 4.5 million – were living in poverty.
The session, which will be broadcast live at 9:30AM tomorrow morning (10th September), comes ahead of the government’s long-awaited publication of a child poverty strategy this autumn.
With this in mind, in July commissioners from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales urged central government to address the ‘root causes’ of child poverty, warning of the long-term harm to kids’ health and wellbeing.
Recent government figures show 3.9 million children are now living in poverty after housing costs – the highest level since comparable records began in 2002. Though it should be noted that child poverty rates aren’t rising as fast in Scotland.
The first panel that is due to commence tomorrow will include Nicola Killean, Commissioner for Scotland, Rocio Cifuentes, Commissioner for Wales and Alex Tennant, Interim Chief Executive at the Northern Ireland Commissioner’s office.
What’s more, a second panel is due to take place at 10:15AM and will feature experts from each nation’s anti-poverty sector. This includes Professor Stephen Sinclair, Chair of Scotland’s Poverty and Inequality Commission and Steffan Evans, CEO of the Bevan Foundation.
Both sessions, which will be chaired by MP Debbie Abrahams, will be available to watch live either on parliament’s website or their YouTube channel.
Photo by Luke Pennystan via UnSplash
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