Shocking figures released last month showed that levels of child poverty in the North East have risen by almost 50% in the last seven years to become the worst in the country.
The most recent data showed the North East bucking the national trend and getting worse, with 42% of young people in Newcastle now living below the poverty line. That figure is almost certainly an underestimate, however, as the reversal of the temporary Universal Credit uplift and the rise in the cost-of-living are pushing more people into financial difficulties.
It was in that context that Gwen Hines, CEO of Save the Children UK, visited Tyneside to see some of the work the charity and other organisations do in the region to help people suffering from the affects of poverty. Though many people associate Save the Children with disasters overseas, it also has a UK operation that is part of the End Child Poverty Coalition, the body that produced the startling figures on the numbers of children now growing up poor.
