Rising number of children is poverty shows we're failing vulnerable people - Hannah Davies

These words, printed in our Child of the North report ‘Child Poverty and the Cost of Living Crisis’, outline the unacceptable lives of at least a million families in the region today who are struggling to eat properly and to heat their homes. If we can’t give our children food and a warm home, we need to acknowledge it as a failure of our society.

What happens when we fail our children? A lot of things. They can’t reach their full potential in education and so we get skills shortages. They develop health problems, they rely more heavily on the NHS and social services.

And we are failing them. Contemplate for a moment the desperate situation of the babies who have turned up in York hospitals over the past month with hypothermia and ask “how can our society allow this to happen?”

And then think about the scale of the cost of living crisis that this is the tip of.

Our report found one million homes in the North were already fuel poor ahead of last autumn. Before the crisis hit this autumn over 98,500 homes in the North had some form of damp. And over one million failed ‘decent homes’ criteria.

This winter will have seen many more homes with damp – the consequences of which can be fatal, especially for children. Don’t forget two-year-old Awaab Ishak in Manchester who died after living in a damp and poorly ventilated flat led to him suffering heart and lung failure.

We know this winter has made things worse for children across the region. Families on prepayment meters are self-disconnecting because of fuel bills, potentially living with no light, heat, hot water or the ability to cook hot food and making their homes damper. These families, incredibly, still face high standing charges despite not using any gas or electricity. Even though the situation in the North is worse, our families pay more for their standing charges here at £3.80 per week on average in Yorkshire compared to a UK average of £3.60.

And, as food inflation hits a rate of 16.7 per cent, we know that families are facing increasingly desperate situations.

“Last week I didn’t eat for four days… I have to lie to my kids and tell them I’ve eaten so that they’re ok, because as long as my kids are eating then I’m ok.”

This account by one mum in the North is echoed by numerous accounts we’ve heard in producing the report.

Food is increasingly out of reach for our families. People are shocked to find out that 23 per cent of children who are food insecure miss out on free school meals because only families with a very low income, £7,500 after tax not including benefits, are eligible. This simply means children are missing out on eating. As we heard from one pupil through the charity Children North East, “My friend didn’t have enough and I had lots and a packed lunch so I bought him his lunch that day.”

Child poverty in the North of England is rampant and the cost of living crisis has made this worse. 34 per cent of children in the North live in poverty compared with 28 per cent in the rest of England. In Yorkshire and the Humber child poverty is now the highest it has been since 2000/2001.

In almost every area of Yorkshire and the Humber there has been rising child poverty in recent years. And what does this mean? At the worst level it means more children are dying. A one per cent increase in child poverty is associated with an extra 5.8 infant deaths per 100,000 live births.

The situation is unacceptable. But there are things that can be done – and we all need to push to do something about it. I’m proud our report was produced by a cross-party group of MPs who are passionate about this issue. All its recommendations should be put in place.

Immediately, to help now, any child whose family gets universal credit should automatically be enrolled to get free school meals. Support needs to continue during school holidays, as it did in some months of the pandemic. Eligible families should be enrolled on Healthy Start Vouchers.

The two child limit to universal credit needs to end now, and the benefit uplifted by £20 a week – measures that would make an immediate and significant impact on child poverty. And we must extend financial support to those most in need so they can heat their homes.

Children should be at the heart of our society but we are failing them. Write to your MP, help children’s charities and keep the pressure up. Children deserve their future and it is on all of us to help them to have it.

Hannah Davies is the Health Inequalities Lead at Northern Health Science Alliance.