Latest news with #childBenefits
Daily Mail
08-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Ministers urged to implement 'triple lock' for child benefits
Labour should introduce a pension-style 'triple-lock' on all child-related benefits to tackle child poverty in England, the Children's Commissioner has urged. Dame Rachel de Souza (pictured) said that some young people are facing 'Dickensian levels' of poverty with children going without basic needs such as heating or a place to wash. All four UK Children's Commissioners - from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - have backed Dame Rachel's call for a 'triple-lock' on child benefits that would introduce annual uplifts. The children's watchdogs have also repeated their demand for the Government to end the two-child benefits limit, in a move likely to pile further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer following growing calls for a review of the policy from Labour backbenchers. A new report from the Children's Commissioner's, based on the experiences of 128 children between January and March this year, noted a range of concerns including lack of access to healthy food and living in cramped and poor conditions. A 7-year-old girl told Dame Rachel (pictured) that rats come into her family's kitchen at night while a 15-year-old boy told of food packages arriving 'out of date and mouldy', leaving his family hungry. While some children said they felt a sense of shame over their situation, Dame Rachel said it is 'society at large and decision-makers that should be ashamed of the fact that children don't have enough money'. Other proposals from the Children's Commissioner to tackle child poverty include free bus travel for all school-age children, auto-enrolment for free school meals for all eligible children and priority for housing to be given to children in low-income households. Dame Rachel - whose office was commissioned to carry out its report to feed into the Government's child poverty review - said while there is 'no quick fix to ending child poverty', she feels it is 'very clear that any child poverty strategy must be built on the foundation of scrapping the two-child limit'. The latest official estimates, for the year to March 2024, suggest there were a record 4.45 million children living in poverty in the UK. The Government is due to publish a child poverty strategy in the autumn and campaigners have said it must include a commitment to remove the two-child benefit limit. The limit, which came into effect under the Conservatives in April 2017, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. Estimates suggest that scrapping the policy would cost the Government up to £3.5billion by the end of this Parliament. Dame Rachel said the findings of her report reveal the 'real hardship' and 'an almost-Dickensian level of poverty' facing some children in England today. The commissioner said in recent years she has seen a change in children's comments, noting that issues traditionally seen as 'adult' concerns 'are now keenly felt by children'.
Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Calls for ministers to introduce a pension style triple-lock to end 'Dickensian levels' of poverty
Labour should introduce a pension-style 'triple-lock' on all child-related benefits to tackle child poverty in England, the Children's Commissioner has urged. Dame Rachel de Souza said that some young people are facing 'Dickensian levels' of poverty with children going without basic needs such as heating or a place to wash. All four UK Children's Commissioners - from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - have backed Dame Rachel's call for a 'triple-lock' on child benefits that would introduce annual uplifts. The children's watchdogs have also repeated their demand for the Government to end the two-child benefits limit, in a move likely to pile further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer following growing calls for a review of the policy from Labour backbenchers. A new report from the Children's Commissioner's, based on the experiences of 128 children between January and March this year, noted a range of concerns including lack of access to healthy food and living in cramped and poor conditions. A 7-year-old girl told Dame Rachel that rats come into her family's kitchen at night while a 15-year-old boy told of food packages arriving 'out of date and mouldy', leaving his family hungry. While some children said they felt a sense of shame over their situation, Dame Rachel said it is 'society at large and decision-makers that should be ashamed of the fact that children don't have enough money'. Other proposals from the Children's Commissioner to tackle child poverty include free bus travel for all school-age children, auto-enrolment for free school meals for all eligible children and priority for housing to be given to children in low-income households. Dame Rachel - whose office was commissioned to carry out its report to feed into the Government's child poverty review - said while there is 'no quick fix to ending child poverty', she feels it is 'very clear that any child poverty strategy must be built on the foundation of scrapping the two-child limit'. The latest official estimates, for the year to March 2024, suggest there were a record 4.45 million children living in poverty in the UK. The Government is due to publish a child poverty strategy in the autumn and campaigners have said it must include a commitment to remove the two-child benefit limit. The limit, which came into effect under the Conservatives in April 2017, restricts child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households. Estimates suggest that scrapping the policy would cost the Government up to £3.5billion by the end of this Parliament. Dame Rachel said the findings of her report reveal the 'real hardship' and 'an almost-Dickensian level of poverty' facing some children in England today. The commissioner said in recent years she has seen a change in children's comments, noting that issues traditionally seen as 'adult' concerns 'are now keenly felt by children'. She added: 'Children do not talk about poverty as an abstract concept. They talk in simple but powerful terms about how it feels to not have enough money to do the same things as their friends, or to feel a sense of shame at being seen as 'lesser'. 'Children should not be ashamed of their family's financial situation, instead, it's society at large and decision makers that should be ashamed of the fact that children don't have enough money.'
