The austerity years cast a long shadow over Britain. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, a programme of cuts overseen by then-chancellor George Osborne and the work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith gutted parts of the welfare state, limiting the generosity of what is now universal credit, introducing a bedroom tax and the two-child limit for child benefit. By 2021, an estimated £37bn had been cut from welfare spending each year alone, with further cuts made to other branches of government.
The consequences of these decisions are all around us. Around four million children were classified as living in poverty in the UK, according to the most recent figures. This week, a University of Oxford study revealed that more than one-fifth of all “austerity generation” British children – that is, children born since 2013 – have been scarred by poverty for at least half their childhood.
