19-07-2025
Column: Somerset's child poverty crisis continues to worsen
Child poverty is at an undoubted high across the UK, writes Rowan Russell.
A record 4.5m children were living in poverty in the UK in the year to April 2024 and an extra 100,000 children were living below the breadline.
These national statistics are reflected locally in Somerset, with an estimate of 14,300 children across the county living in extremely low-income households.
These already staggering statistics are likely to be even higher as housing costs are not taken into account when calculating local figures, unlike the broader national ones, where the relative poverty is looked at after housing costs, as well as the local statistics only counting children aged up to 15 while the national ones record children up to 19 years old.
The figures have been steadily rising over the past few years, from 2018 when around 12,150 children were recorded to be living in poverty - just 13.1 per cent - to now, where the percentage has increased to roughly 17 per cent - not even taking housing costs into account.
However, in recent research done by the End Child Poverty Coalition in the South West, the figure was closer to 27 per cent when making the calculations after housing costs.
Robert Wyatt, Action for Children's operational director in the South West, said: "No child in the South West should have to experience poverty.
"These figures should demonstrate to the government just how important it is to quickly address this to prevent another generation of children from growing up in low-income families.
"One in four children in the South West live in homes where daily essentials are a struggle – it's a national scandal, and we see the impact on children and families in our frontline services every day."
The research also showed a strong correlation between the two-child benefit cap and children living in poverty in the South West.
The two-child benefit cap was introduced by the Conservative government in 2017 and restricts the support that families with more than two children can receive.
It is estimated that the two-child benefit cap affects around 2,425 children in Somerset alone.
Although scrapping the cap would cost the government roughly an additional £3bn a year if fully implemented, it would provide 300,000 children nationwide with an escape from poverty.
Mr Wyatt continued to say: "As a first step the government must scrap the two-child limit to benefit payments, a policy which continues to pull children into poverty every day."
The policy does indeed result in children dropping into poverty on a daily basis.
The End Child Poverty Coalition estimates that the limit pulls 109 children below the breadline every day across the country.
Joseph Howes, CEO of Buttle UK and chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, said: "Scrapping the two-child limit is a crucial first step to address rising child poverty across the UK.
"By doing this the government could also see a boost to local economies, targeting some of the most deprived areas of the country.
"We don't want to see another year of families suffering as a result of the two-child limit.
"The government must scrap this policy as part of their soon-to-be-published strategy to tackle child poverty."
Children from low-income households across the country do, however, receive support through their schools.
In Somerset, the Somerset Household Support Fund gives vital support to struggling families such as providing Free School Meal vouchers during school holidays for children, weekend activities and warm spaces for families, food and fuel provisions and more.
Additionally, locally-targeted organisations such as Spark Somerset and Connect Somerset help to support low-income families in the area.
Spark Somerset provides information on warm and welcoming places providing young people with a place to rely on during the winter months.
Connect Somerset offers help services, including a 'Team around the School' model where professionals connect with and help support schools and families.
Many more national support mechanisms are in place that can be accessed via school, such as Pupil Premium, which gives schools funding relevant to the number of pupils eligible for free school meals at the specific school, and the National Funding Formula which provides schools with the additional funding they might require to give extra support to disadvantaged pupils.
On top of this, the government has just announced a new fund called the Better Futures Fund.
This fund is designed to support over 200,000 children living in poverty.
It will run for 10 years and will aim to bring together "government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors, and philanthropists to work together to give children a brighter future."
It also aims to intervene with children and young people heading down a path to a life of crime, hoping to give career opportunities and a promise of a safer future.
This intervention will lead to many mental health support and social care organisations and indeed schools to be relieved of a lot of stress.
The fund could provide additional funds in schools to bring up attendance and therefore the overall achievement of pupils.
In Somerset and the South West, local youth services will be able to bid on Better Futures Funding for schemes that will focus on such things as reintegrating children excluded from school, supporting young people experiencing mental health crises and diverting at-risk youth away from criminal or antisocial behaviours.
It will also be possible to build on existing regional infrastructure.
The South West has many established business partners in health, education, social care, and housing, such as Somerset's Strategic Housing Group integrated approach and community-led support services.
The Better Futures Fund will result in a boost in the work of organisations already supporting local vulnerable families by patching any holes in existing networks.
The fund is also likely to result in unemployment going down - if sustainable organisations are given more funding then more job opportunities will become available.
Children's commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, speaks of a noticeable change in how children and young people talk about their lives.
She said: "Issues that were traditionally seen as 'adult' concerns are now keenly felt by children.
"Children shared harrowing accounts of hardship, with some in almost Dickensian levels of poverty.
"They don't talk about 'poverty' as an abstract concept but about not having the things that most people would consider basic: a safe home that isn't mouldy or full of rats, with a bed big enough to stretch out in, 'luxury' food like bacon, a place to do homework, heating, privacy in the bathroom and being able to wash, having their friends over, and not having to travel hours to school."
After a period of undeniable growth in child poverty, hopefully more measures will be put in place along with the existing ones that will lead to an ease in the harsh statistics of the struggling of so many children.
