The Mayor of the West of England has backed child benefit reform – with around 67,000 children (27%) across the West estimated to be growing up in poverty, after housing costs.
Figures from 38 Degrees show that lifting the two-child benefit cap would mean a cash boost of more than £23 million for families in Bath & North East Somerset (£2.89m), Bristol (£12.28m), North Somerset (£3.42m), and South Gloucestershire (£4.48m).
Tomorrow (25 November) the Mayor will give a pre-Budget speech at Citizens’ Advice Bristol’s annual general meeting in the city, where in some neighbourhoods every other child grows up in poverty. Helen Godwin will restate her vision of “a proudly interventionist approach to make life better for people”.
The , which was , set out an ambition to publish a plan by the end of the year.
The speech to trustees, staff, and volunteers is set to thank Citizens’ Advice Bristol and partners for their “important, incredible work” providing financial advice, support, and literacy help. The Mayor will praise the sector for its continued efforts to give hope to those going through a difficult time, “helping put food in the fridge, money in the meter, and helping keep a roof over people’s heads.”
It comes ahead of an anticipated child poverty action plan for the region being published next month, to complement widely reported reforms from the Chancellor’s Budget tomorrow and an upcoming national strategy on child poverty, and will also see the Mayor call for people on Universal Credit to be able to use government-issued vouchers to cover discounted childcare upfront, rather than having to pay everything and then reclaim later.
Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England, is expected to say:
“Every child deserves the best start in life. We have a moral duty to lift children out of poverty and to ease the cost of living for families.
“Earlier this year, I visited a free breakfast club at a primary school in Bath with the Prime Minister. With those breakfast clubs and free school meals expanding for more children, historic reform to child benefit would make a further real difference to children and families across our region.
“Next month, to support any changes announced in Parliament, a child poverty action plan for the West will set out how to further use regional levers to help break the cycle of poverty and give people hope.”
The regional plan is expected to focus on reducing the cost of living, giving young people the best start in life, and connecting residents to opportunity through skills and transport. It follows Kids Go Free over the summer holidays putting almost £1 million back into the pockets of parents and carers, after more than 910,000 free bus journeys for young people.
While a local councillor, with more than one in ten parents ending up in debt to cover the cost of school uniforms, Helen organised a school uniform drive – collecting and distributing hundreds of items. During that time, Helen supported two new charities being set up: Feeding Bristol, to tackle food inequality, and Period Friendly Bristol, to tackle period poverty by providing free access to sanitary products. As cabinet member for children and families, Helen laid the foundations for and committed public funding to the new Youth Zone currently being built in south Bristol by national charity OnSide – the first in the South West.
Since May, the Mayor has highlighted the issue of child poverty, supporting national government efforts to , with ten already up and running the wider region and schools last week encouraged to join the scheme, and plans to extend automatic entitlement for from next year. Increases to the national minimum wage; an expansion of government-funded childcare; and a cap on the number of branded school uniform items, which are often more expensive, are among other measures already announced to support parents and carers.
In September, the Mayor joined former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and fellow mayors to highlight the importance of tackling child poverty, setting out its scale by saying: “The West is seen as an affluent, progressive region but that reputation belies a painful reality. In Bristol, 35% of children are growing up in poverty. In some parts of our towns and cities, every other child faces that daily uphill battle. Our rural areas face similar challenges, with between one in four and one in five children in poverty, compounded by isolation and a lack of opportunity.”