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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Patrick Butler

More than 1 million children in UK sleep on floor or share bed, study finds

Shelley Nicholson and her daughter Ash, 16, at their home near Carlisle in Cumbria.
Shelley Nicholson and her daughter Ash, 16, at their home near Carlisle in Cumbria. The family have been impacted by ‘bed poverty’. Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

More than a million children in the UK either sleep on the floor or share a bed with parents or siblings because their family cannot afford the “luxury” of replacing broken frames and mouldy linen, according to the children’s charity Barnardo’s.

The charity says increasing “bed poverty” reflects growing levels of destitution in which low-income families already struggling with soaring food or gas bills often find they are also unable to afford a comfortable night’s sleep.

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