Millions of kids worry about their family having enough cash, bleak research shows today.
An Action for Children study found 30% of youngsters stress about their parents having sufficient money to live comfortably - rising to 47% from low-income households - as the cost of living crisis deepens.
He added: “It is the fundamental responsibility of any government to make sure every generation of children has a better childhood and a brighter future than the last.”
Only 38% of children believe they will have a brighter future compared with when their parents were their age.
But 44% of parents and 46% of grandparents fear their child or grandchild won’t have a brighter future.
Action for Children’s director of policy and campaigns, Imran Hussain, said “intensifying money worries will leave children feeling the world is a gloomier place”.
He said that low-income households were “already locked in a crippling cost of living crisis” and now face “higher energy bills and inflation rates not seen for a generation”.
He added: “The Government needs a clear plan to reduce child poverty and it can take immediate action to support those on the lowest incomes by making sure benefits keep pace with the soaring cost of living in the tough months ahead.”
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is under pressure to act when he delivers the Spring Statement mini-Budget on Wednesday.
He told yesterday’s BBC1 Sunday Morning show: "The actions of this Government and previous Conservative governments over the last 10 years have meant that there are fewer people living in poverty today - over a million people fewer living in poverty today.
“We’re raising the National Living Wage by 6.6% in April - that’s an extra £1,000 for someone on a lower income.
“We’ve cut the Universal Credit taper rate.”
