- New research from the University of Oxford reveals that nearly a quarter of children born in Britain since the 2010s have experienced poverty for at least half of their childhoods.
- This surge in long-term child poverty, affecting 23% of children born after 2013, is attributed to 'austerity era' policies such as frozen working-age benefits and the two-child limit.
- These measures, introduced by the coalition government, drastically reduced annual welfare spending by tens of billions, pushing hundreds of thousands more children into sustained hardship.
- The study contrasts this with the previous Labour government's anti-poverty initiatives, which saw a significant reduction in long-term childhood poverty.
- The current Labour government's plan to abolish the two-child benefit cap is projected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty by 2030, though campaigners are urging further action to restore the wider social safety net.
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