BASW raises funds for Child Poverty Action Group

BASW is delighted to announce that members, staff and the wider social work community have collectively raised £391 for Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) through donations received for our festive e-card.

Harry Venning, the award-winning cartoonist, illustrator and comedy writer, designed a special Clare in the Community e-card for anyone to download and share with friends, family and colleagues to celebrate the festive season.

The campaign also gave the opportunity for those downloading the e-card to make a small donation to support CPAG, a charity which works on behalf of more than one in four children in the UK growing up in poverty. CPAG uses its understanding of what causes poverty and the impact it has on kids, to campaign for policies that will prevent and solve poverty – for good. It provides training, advice and information to make sure families get the financial support they need as well as carrying out high profile legal work to establish and protect families’ rights.

BASW launched our campaign against poverty in November, calling on the UK Government to provide greater financial security for those hardest hit by the cost-of-living crisis. This included a letter from BASW UK Chief Executive, Ruth Allen and BASW UK Chair, Julia Ross to the Prime Minister ahead of the Autumn Statement. One of the asks is for the UK Government to scrap the two-child limit on benefits, a campaigning priority for CPAG.

BASW UK Chief Executive, Ruth Allen commented:

“I’m delighted that BASW members, staff and the wider social work community have raised this money for CPAG through our e-card offer. I would like to thank everyone for their generous support.

“Rising cost-of-living pressures are pushing more and more families across the UK into poverty. Too many children are at the sharp end of this crisis and we need the government to act urgently to help them.

“CPAG does tremendous work in this area, holding policy-makers to account on their commitments and challenging policies that leave families without enough money to live on. We’re looking forward to working with them, and other partners, over the coming months to raise awareness of the impact of poverty and campaign for more support for those worst affected."

CPAG Chief Executive, Alison Garnham commented:

“Thank you so much to BASW members and the social work community for your extremely generous support and the donations raised with the festive e-card.

“Millions of families’ budgets were already at breaking point and now the cost of living crisis is making things even worse. As social workers you see the reality of this in your work. You see how political choices and a decade of cuts to the social security system have affected children and families.

“It doesn’t have to be like this. Child poverty isn’t inevitable. Thank you for your commitment to preventing and ending child poverty, and to getting more financial support to kids and families with the least.”