City listed among UK’s worst for child poverty

The report by the Campaign to End Child Poverty shows Hull council’s area has the highest level of child poverty in Yorkshire, just outside the top 20 in a list of the worst affected areas.

Children were classed as in poverty if their family’s income fell below 60 per cent of the average income, leaving them struggling to meet basic needs such as food, heating, transport, clothing, school equipment and trips.

In Hull, 32 per cent of children live in poverty, compared with the UK average of one in five.

Campaigners have warned that targeting Government cuts at families would lead to an “economic and a social disaster”, and the report said tax and benefit changes outlined in the Autumn Statement showed the greater burden was being placed on the poorest.

At least four in 10 children are in poverty in 19 UK parliamentary constituencies, the report found, while “serious concentrations” of deprivation were revealed at an even more local level, with between 50-70 per cent of children facing poverty in 100 wards.

Leeds Central came 18th in a list of the 20 parliamentary constituencies worst affected by child poverty, while Sheffield Central was revealed to have 36 per cent of its children in poverty.

But Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s Sheffield Hallam constituency came joint first in the top 20 with the lowest levels.

Skipton and Ripon, Haltemprice and Howden and the Vale of York – a constituency now defunct after the 2010 boundary changes – also made the list, and are among 89 constituencies already meeting the Government’s target for 2020 by having child poverty rates of 10 per cent or less. David Cameron’s Witney constituency also featured.

The report also warned over the wider risks of failing to tackle the issue, adding: “Child poverty already costs the UK economy around £25bn a year; any rise in child poverty will push up this cost.”

Campaign executive director Alison Garnham said: “The child poverty map paints a stark picture of a socially segregated Britain where the life chances of millions of children are damaged by poverty and inequality.

“But it also gives us reason for hope. The child poverty target has already been met in the Prime Minister’s constituency and nearly a hundred others, so never let it be said the targets are impossible to meet.

North East Lincolnshire and Bradford, where 26 per cent of children are affected by poverty – come behind Hull to complete the top three worst affected local authorities in the Yorkshire region.

Nationally, Tower Hamlets in London was named as the worst affected, with more than half of children in the borough living in poverty.

Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, said: “Hull’s been one of the hardest hit by the Coalition’s cuts to public services, the squeeze on living standards and the flat-lining economy that has resulted.

“This End Child Poverty report also says that much-hyped Coalition policies such as the Pupil Premium will not mask the regressive effect that the Coalition is having on increasing child poverty.

“Ministers are cutting child support, children’s services and opportunities for educational improvement, finding jobs and saving that are the route out of poverty and dependency.”