North-east England overtakes London as UK’s child poverty hotspot
The north-east of England has the highest rate of child poverty of anywhere in the UK, for the first time overtaking London as the nation’s hotspot for hardship and deprivation, new analysis shows.
Although the latest UK-wide figures show child poverty rates overall fell slightly in the first year of the pandemic due to the temporary £20 weekly uplift to universal credit, detailed breakdown shows child poverty continued to rise in areas like Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough.
End Child Poverty, a coalition of poverty charities that published the analysis, called for a new national poverty strategy, warning that UK child poverty rates were “on the edge of a precipice” and will rise sharply as a result of the removal of the £20 uplift last October.
Although the government’s cost of living support package announced one-off payments of at least £1,200 to low-income families this year, the coalition believes these temporary measures will only partly remedy dramatic increases in energy bills and food prices.
The first tranche of a £650 payment to low-income families in receipt of universal credit, job seeker’s allowance and other benefits is due to be paid over a two-week period starting from Thursday.
Energy prices are expected to soar in the autumn, with the price cap on track to rise to £3,244 a year in October, and to £3,363 a year in January. The current cap, already at record levels, is at £1,971.
Child poverty rates also rose in Wales, up to 34% in 2020-21 compared with 31% the year before the pandemic. This compared with an England average of 29% (30% in 2020-21), 21% in Scotland (24%) and 24% in Northern Ireland (24%). The UK average was 27%.
The increase in child poverty in the north-east and Wales was attributed
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