Covid crisis is creating a ‘child poverty timebomb’, warns Children’s Commissioner

Politicians must take child poverty out of the ‘too difficult box’ and come up with a big, bold, long-term plan to fix it, Commissioner urges

The Covid-19 crisis is creating a 'child poverty timebomb', the Children's Commissioner Anne Longfield has warned.

In Child poverty: the crisis we can't keep ignoring, a collection of essays examining various aspects of child poverty, a cross-party group of politicians and campaigners - including the Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee Stephen Timms and CEO of the Trussell Trust Emma Revie - put forward proposals in three main areas -

• the need for the government to have an over-arching plan to tackle child poverty;
• developing a child poverty strategy that looks at both the material conditions which bring about child poverty, and the impact it has on children’s life chances; and
• the relationship between work and poverty for families.

Introducing the collection - that also includes contributions from Helen Barnard of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, former Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Edward Davies of the Centre for Social Justice - Ms Longfield warns that child poverty in England will continue to rise during this parliament unless the government takes bold action and says -

'Child poverty was already a problem before the pandemic, but it has been laid bare by the Covid crisis and must not be ignored any longer. The shocking image of a family being sent half a carrot in a food parcel shows a system of support that, as well as often falling short, is at times demeaning and stigmatising.

Yet some are still squeamish about even using the phrase ‘child poverty’. Neither of the two main political parties fought the last General Election with plans to significantly reduce child poverty, despite the fact it had been rising for most of the past decade.

In the short term, I want the Government to commit to keeping the £20 universal credit uplift. But too often policy changes to help people in poverty are a sticking plaster for the symptoms, made as a result of short-term political embarrassment.

I am pleased to publish this collection of essays, which makes powerful arguments for an overhaul of the current system, with positive and practical solutions for cutting the number of children living in poverty. Both Ministers and the Opposition should take these ideas on board.

Child poverty is one of the four major political, economic and social challenges facing us... We need to treat it with the same seriousness, and even greater urgency.

Politicians must take child poverty out of the ‘too difficult box’ now, and come up with a big, bold, long-term plan for fixing it.'

For more information see Politicians must take child poverty out of the ‘too difficult box’ and come up with a big, bold plan to fix it from childrenscommissioner.gov.uk