The number of children living in poverty in the UK has reached a record high of almost 4.5 million.
The official figure comes a day after Government estimates suggested welfare cuts will plunge thousands more children below the poverty line by the end of the decade.
There were 4.45 million children estimated to be in households in relative low income, after housing costs, in the year to March 2024, data published by the Department for Work and Pensions on Thursday shows.
The latest figure is the highest since comparable records for the UK began in 2002/03.
It rose from an estimated 4.33 million in the year to March 2023.
A household is considered to be in relative poverty if it is below 60% of the median income after housing costs.
The Government’s own impact assessment, published on Wednesday, estimated welfare reforms could see 250,000 more people, including 50,000 children, fall into poverty by 2029/30.
Charities urged a U-turn on the plans, saying cuts to disability and incapacity benefits announced by the Labour Government will “push more disabled people into poverty and worsen people’s health”.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has insisted the Government’s plans to support people into work “will result in more people having fulfilling careers paying decent wages and, of course, that’s the best way to lift families out of poverty”.
Anti-poverty campaigners have also repeatedly called for the controversial two-child benefit limit – first announced in 2015 by the Conservatives and in effect since 2017 – to be scrapped.
They have urged plans for the policy – which restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households – to be part of the Government’s child poverty strategy which is due to be published in the spring.
Polling for the charity Parentkind, published earlier this week, found one in 10 UK parents living in poverty surveyed said their child had been bullied for being poor, a finding the organisation said showed the “devastating impact” financial struggles can have on families.
