Child poverty
We’re helping families through crisis, and fighting for an end to child poverty and hardship. Our frontline services supporting families tell us they have never seen poverty like this
Low wages, rising prices, and unfair benefit rules leave family budgets stretched to breaking point.
4.3 million children in the UK are living in poverty. Some families are more likely to be hit than others, including single parents, bigger families, and Black and Asian families.
In some areas of the country, more than half of children are in poverty. Growing up without enough money means missing out on some of the joys of childhood – toys, treats and, trips out.
A child can also miss the basic essentials: shoes that fit, a proper dinner, or a hot bath on a cold day. As well as making day to day life difficult, the impact of poverty can affect a child’s future.
Since 2020, we’ve run a Crisis Fund which provides emergency grants to families and young people in our services to help with the cost of essentials like food, bills and cooking equipment.
We’ve paid more than £2 million in emergency grants since 2020 to 18,000 families and 41,000 children.
If you guys weren’t there, I strongly believe that a lot of families would be broken. […] I wouldn’t have had a cooker for a long time. We would’ve waited months and the kids wouldn’t have gotten a hot meal.
Rachel, 26, parent of two children with serious health problems
We work with others to campaign for an end to child poverty. We conduct research to discover more about the impact of child poverty, and what can be done to make life fairer for families. We speak directly to MPs and ministers and call on them to act.
