- Tackling child poverty is at the heart of this government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity, parliamentarians told
- Alex Fitzpatrick, head of the Child Poverty Unit in the Cabinet Office, shared details on government’s Child Poverty Strategy at All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) meeting
- Jess Asato MP, co-Chair of the APPGC, stressed the importance of immediate action on ending child poverty
The government will take action to improve the lives of children growing up in poverty, parliamentarians and senior civil servants heard at the first All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC) meeting since the appointment of its two new Chairs.
Alex Fitzpatrick, head of the Child Poverty Unit in the Cabinet Office, shared details on development of the government’s Child Poverty Strategy at the parliamentary meeting on child poverty on 13 November. Government will tackle poverty affecting “children now and in future generations”, she explained.
The meeting was introduced by Alison McGovern MP, Minister for Employment, who praised the APPGC for putting children at the heart of policymaking in Westminster. The Minister stressed that the government is applying an “anti-poverty lens” across all their work and departments.
They joined Jess Asato MP, newly-appointed co-Chair of the APPGC, who highlighted the urgency of tackling the issue. “Living in poverty impacts every aspect of a child’s life including their education and their mental and physical health, and has huge implications on their outcomes in later life,” said the MP for Lowestoft.
The Strategy will be UK-wide, making close working with Devolved Governments essential, Fitzpatrick added. This will include broad action to increase incomes, reduce costs, increase financial resilience and improve access to local and community services.
Over four million children are growing up in poverty in the UK. The two-child benefit cap and No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF), an immigration policy affecting over 3.2m people in the UK which prevents them and their children from accessing state benefits, were raised by MPs during the meeting as contributing factors to the current crisis.
Asato shared statements from children who had been living in poverty and how this affected their lives. One said: “There's so much shame to it. We knew from the age of like 6-7, that if someone asked if we were eating, we said yes. If someone asks why the fridge was empty, we said, oh, mummy's doing the shopping tomorrow…”
She added that expert child poverty organisations including the End Child Poverty coalition, Barnardo's, Save the Children, Child Poverty Action Group, Trussell Trust and the National Children’s Bureau (NCB - which is also the Secretariat for the APPGC), have been working together to brief the Child Poverty Unit, ensuring that the needs of children and their families are prioritised.
Dustin Hutchinson, Senior Policy, Public Affairs and Development Manager at the National Children’s Bureau and coordinator of the APPGC, said:
“We are delighted to have brought the APPGC, the Minister for Employment, and the Cabinet Office Child Poverty Unit together to find the best ways to eradicate child poverty. We want the experiences and priorities of children directly impacted by the crisis to be heard by government and parliamentarians. We will continue to work with the wider child poverty sector to ensure that lived experiences shape the development of the Child Poverty Strategy, and that the new policies benefit children and families the most.”
About the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children
The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Children (APPGC), a group of cross-party MPs and Peers coordinated by the National Children’s Bureau, takes the voices of children and young people to the heart of Government.
Since October 2024 the APPGC, established in 1984, has been chaired by Jess Asato MP and Munira Wilson MP.
Together we hold inquiries to raise awareness of issues putting children at risk and work across Government to influence the development of policy that brings about the best for babies, children and young people.
Find out more about NCB’s work to tackle child poverty here.