Strict upper limits on the total amount that families can receive in state benefits continue to exacerbate a growing problem of poverty. Among children in the UK, absolute poverty has risen by its highest rate for 30 years, with new analysis from the Resolution Foundation showing that households in the bottom fifth of the income distribution have lost an average of £2,800 a year since 2010. Labour’s refusal to commit to lifting the two-child cap, which prevents parents of third or subsequent children born since 2017 from claiming child-linked benefits, means it is unclear if and how this awful situation will be remedied. While the school breakfast clubs that the party has promised are a positive measure, children should not need to go to school in order to eat.
The former prime minister Gordon Brown is campaigning for a £1bn social impact bond to promote the chances of the “children of austerity”. Charities are pushing for a statutory “essentials guarantee” – creating a floor beneath which benefits would not be allowed to sink. So far, Sir Keir Starmer’s team have refused to give ground.
