A third of children now living in poverty in the UK as cost of living crisis continues to hit hard

BASW calls for next government to take urgent action on childhood deprivation in its manifesto for social work
Plate with hunger written on it

Child poverty in the UK has reached its highest level for 30 years according to new government figures.

The DWP's Households Below Average Income statistics show that 4.3 million children were in relative poverty in the year ending April 2023. This means around 30 per cent of 14 million children in the UK in 2022-23 were living in poverty, up from 23.8 per cent the previous year – the largest increase since records began in 1994-95.

During the height of the cost of living crisis,100,000 more children entered poverty. The shock statistics have prompted calls for a welfare overhaul.

In total across the year, 12 million people were in absolute poverty, or nearly a fifth (18 per cent) of the UK population. This is an increase of 600,000 on previous figures.

  • 826,000 children were in households that used foodbanks in the last year
  • 100,000 more children were pulled into relative poverty after housing costs
  • 50 per cent of children in poverty lived in a household with three or more children 
  • More poor families fell into deep poverty affecting 2.9 million children
  • A third (36 per cent) of all children in poverty were in families with a child aged under five
  • 47 per cent of Asian and British Asian families were in poverty
  • 51 per cent of children in Black/African/Caribbean and Black British families were in poverty
  • 24 per cent of children in white families were in poverty
  • 34 per cent of children in lone parent families were in poverty
  • 34 per cent of children in a disabled household were in poverty

BASW has placed tackling poverty at the centre of its Manifesto for Social Work, issued ahead of this year’s general election.

In a foreword to the manifesto, BASW chair Julia Ross states: “The UK deserves better than to be characterised by food banks, evictions and homelessness. Many users of social work services are in poverty and this reality gives social workers direct insight into the problems people face. Poverty is also a driver of many of the problems social workers seek to overcome. The alleviation of poverty would be good for society as a whole – but it would also allow social workers to do their job properly in supporting and empowering people more effectively.”

The Manifesto calls on the next UK government to tackle growing poverty in the following ways:

  • Scrap the two-child limit and benefit cap
  • Continue to uprate benefits in line with inflation
  • Invest in family and community services across the uk
  • Extend the debt breathing space to 180 days
  • Ban private sector evictions 
  • Ban no-fault evictions 

Responding to the figures, Meghan Meek-O'Connor, senior child poverty policy adviser at Save the Children UK, said: “These shocking figures should be an urgent wake up call to all of us, especially the UK government: we cannot go on like this.”

Alison Garnham, chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: “Child poverty has reached a record high. 

“We know that change is possible, but we need to see a commitment from all parties to scrap the two child limit and increase child benefits. Anything less would be a betrayal of Britain’s children.”

Mel Stride, secretary of state for work and pensions, admitted “the past few years have been tough” but added the government had provided cost of living support worth an average of £3,800 per household, preventing 1.3 million people from falling into poverty last year.