- End Child Poverty responds to damning report by UN Special Rapporteur on child poverty in the UK
Anna Feuchtwang, Chair of End Child Poverty and Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said:
“The UN’s expert has rightly described the levels of poverty in the UK as a social calamity and a national disgrace. 4.1 million children in the UK are suffering the degrading and dehumanising effects of growing up in poverty, with levels, exacerbated by benefit freezes, predicted by the UN Special Rapporteur, Prof. Philip Alston, to climb by 7 per cent between 2015 and 2022.
“But this problem goes deeper than just benefit freezes, it highlights how policymakers and wealthy parts of society are effectively shutting the door on poor people, barring them from both adequate financial support and the services for children, young people and families that can provide a helping hand when they need it, or simply somewhere affordable they can go and safely participate in community life.
“It is simply not credible for the Government to continue its denial of the growing levels of child poverty in the UK. The freeze in children’s benefits, the introduction of the two-child limit, and problems with the introduction of Universal Credit have all contributed to a bleak outlook for millions of children in which they will struggle to enjoy the rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Children.
“We welcome Professor Alston’s report and call on all the main political parties to seize the opportunity that his visit provides to set out an ambitious strategy to end child poverty that values the future and wellbeing of every child. We can’t allow our society’s fixation on Brexit to blind us to the poverty that blights too many communities and too many lives.”
For further information please contact the National Children’s Bureau media office: [email protected] / 020 7 843 6000.