Number of children in poverty with working parents rose ‘by 1,300 a week over decade’

2 comments

1. >Some 4.3 million children are growing up in poverty in the UK, according to the latest government figures from March. This is the highest level since records began over 20 years ago, and up from the previous high of 4.28 million in the year to March 2020.

   >The poverty line is classed as having a net household income of less than 60 per cent of the UK average, after housing costs.

   It is worth recognising that this is an increase in *relative* poverty. Which is to say, it’s really saying that inequality has increased.

   This is worth acknowledging because most people think of poverty in terms of *absolute* poverty – that is, they think it’s about whether a family can afford to put food on the table, not their income relative to their neighbours’.

   Relative poverty is a useful measure, but it’s also quite flawed. If only because it actually usually falls during a recession – people are laid off, which reduces average household income, which lowers the line that we consider to mark poverty, and some people that were below the line now find themselves above it.

2. We could literally end all child poverty tomorrow. Sadly a lot of people believe that trauma is character building.