Child Poverty & Education Archives - Greater Manchester Poverty Action

Child Poverty & Education

Funding for playschemes

June 12, 2019 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, Food & Wellbeing, GMPA No comments

The Greater Manchester Food Poverty Action Plan, which we launched in March, calls for concerted action to provide food with activities for children and young people during school holidays. Manchester Holiday Buzz is a great example of this, involving businesses, charities, the council and housing associations.

Manchester Holiday Buzz Playscheme Fund 2019-2020
Young Manchester is passionate about giving children and young people the opportunity to play. We know that financially disadvantaged children can experience hunger in the holidays and a holiday experience gap. Open access playschemes are one way for children to make new friends, stay active and access healthy food during the school holidays. Playschemes offer supervised play during school holidays. Most schemes are free of charge, but some may ask for a small donation eg 50p per session.

Funding is available for the delivery of open access holiday playschemes for children and young people aged 5 – 14 years. Closing date for applications: 5pm Friday June 14th 2019. This is for voluntary and community sector organisations working with children and young people and education providers partnering with the VCSE sector. Organisations must be based in Manchester and/or mainly working with Manchester residents

For more information, the fund prospectus, application guidance and an application form please go to the website

New child poverty figures

May 15, 2019 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, Guest Blogs No comments

New local child poverty figures show worrying rises in poorest parts of the UK
By Graham Whitham

Today the End Child Poverty coalition launched updated local child poverty figures. With around three in ten children living in relative poverty in the UK, the local figures allow us to understand what those numbers mean at a local authority, parliamentary constituency and ward level. Not surprisingly there are huge variations across the country. Worryingly the figures show that child poverty is rising particularly rapidly in the most disadvantaged parts of major cities, especially London, Birmingham and Greater Manchester.

We are used to seeing figures that show Greater Manchester is home to some of the highest levels of poverty and deprivation in the country. These figures show that in some wards in our city region more than 50% of children are living below the poverty line.

The figures also details huge variations within Greater Manchester. A staggering 62% of children are living below the poverty line in Werneth in Oldham, compared to 13.4% in Worsley in Salford.

There are also major variations within individual boroughs. The ward with the highest level of child poverty in Bolton is Great Lever, with a child poverty rate of 55%. The ward with the lowest rate in the same borough is Bromley Cross at 18.5%. Despite these variations, all ten boroughs in Greater Manchester are home to thousands of children living in poverty. The main figures are detailed at the end of this article.

The increases in child poverty seen across the UK in recent years are largely the result of cuts to working age benefits. Parents have seen the value of tax credits, Child Benefit and other support cut in recent years. The figures also underline how seemingly positive employment figures – low unemployment and record employment levels – aren’t translating into reductions in poverty and improved living standards. Too many people are trapped in low paying jobs or unable to get sufficient hours to work their way out of poverty.

Chancellor Phillip Hammond recently hinted at another significant increase in the minimum wage. This would be welcome but must sit alongside reversals in cuts to benefits and measures that increase in-work progression.

Alongside launching the local child poverty figures, End Child Poverty is calling on the Government to set out an ambitious and credible child poverty-reduction strategy, including:

Restoring the link between benefits (including housing support) and inflation, and then making up for the loss in the real value in children’s benefits as a result of the 4-year freeze and previous sub-inflation increases in benefit rates.
Ending the two-child limit on child allowances in tax credits and universal credit and reforming Universal Credit;
Reversing the cuts and investing in children’s services such as mental health, education, childcare and social care.

Graham Whitham

As a member of End Child Poverty, Greater Manchester Poverty Action these calls. We would also like to see the Government provide more support for local stakeholders to tackle poverty in their area. A national poverty strategy could help create a framework and provide guidance for local authorities and their partners to address child poverty locally.

Mapping of anti-poverty strategies in 209 top-tier local authority areas in England and Wales by GMPA in 2018 found that 31 of the 209 have a child or family poverty strategy in place (for example Manchester) and a further 80 incorporate a focus on child and family poverty within a broader strategy (for example Salford) or set of strategies (for example Wigan). Whilst many local areas are pushing ahead with their own strategic approaches, the lack of poverty strategies in many areas highlights the need for greater leadership on this issue by central government.

Key findings*

*Please note the figures we have shown here are for poverty after housing costs (AHC) are taken into account.

End Child Poverty have also published before housing costs (BHC) figures. The data for each Ward, Constituency and Local Authority is available in full at http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/poverty-in-your-area-2019/

Rise in Child Poverty

April 10, 2019 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, Guest Blogs No comments

Latest government data shows a worrying rise in child poverty
By Graham Whitham

At the end of last month the government released the latest UK poverty statistics. The child poverty figures gained the most attention with the data showing a rise in the number of children living in deep or ‘severe’ poverty. This means that of the 4.1 million children in relative poverty, 2.8 million are in ‘severe’ poverty. There are 3.7 million children in poverty under the alternative absolute poverty measure.

Whilst pensioner poverty has remained low over recent year, there are signs that this is also starting to increase. The graph below shows how the poverty rate varies for different household types:

Many readers will be aware of the rise in in-work poverty in recent years. An incredible 70% of children living in poverty are now in households where at least one adult is in work. Whilst children in households where no one is in work are still at greater risk of poverty, the rise of in-work poverty is a sign that employment is not an effective route out of poverty for many families.

The figures also showed a rise in inequality, with the incomes of the rich growing at a faster rate than those on lower incomes.

Some are projecting that the child poverty rate will reach a record 37% by 2022, breaking the record high of 34% set in the early 90s, unless action is taken. In response to the figures being published, End Child Poverty (ECP) called on all the major political parties to develop an ambitious and coherent child poverty reduction strategy ahead of the next General Election. ECP also wants to see an end to the benefit freeze and a full reversal of the two-child limit in his November budget.

Graham Whitham, Director of GMPA

GMPA is a member of End Child Poverty and supports these calls. We are highly concerned about the impact of ongoing welfare cuts in Greater Manchester, where an estimated 620,000 residents are living in poverty.

Cost of a child 2018

October 10, 2018 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, GMPA No comments

CPAG’s 2018 Cost of a Child report shows what it costs to raise a child to age 18, based on what the public thinks is a minimum standard of living.

The overall cost of a child (including rent and childcare) is £150,753 for a couple and £183,335 for a lone parent.

A combination of rising prices, benefits and tax credits freezes, the benefit cap and two-child limit, cuts to housing benefits, bedroom tax and the rolling out of universal credit have hit family budgets hard. Life has been getting progressively tougher for families on low or modest incomes over the past ten years, with families on in-work and out-of-work benefits hardest hit.

Even families with two parents currently working full time on the ‘national living wage’ are 11% (£49 per week) short of the income the public defines as an acceptable, no-frills living standard. For lone parents, even with a reasonably paid job (on median earnings) will be 15% (£56 per week) short of an adequate income because of the high cost of childcare.

Many families – both in and out of work – get support from the social security system to help free them from the worst effects of poverty. Next year universal credit will be rolled out to everyone claiming one or more of the benefits it will replace. But the way the government plans to do this risks increasing hardship.

For a start, the way the government wants the 3 million people affected to move onto universal credit puts all the risk on to the shoulders of claimants – many of whom are vulnerable.

CPAG are asking MPs to persuade the government to change their plans. You can help by writing to your MP.

CPAG have proposed an alternative system which puts the needs of claimants at the heart of the process, and greatly reduces the risk of families facing destitution. You can help them make the case for this approach by asking your MP to push for changes. MPs will have chance to debate these rules and vote on them, but they can’t make changes once they’ve reached parliament. So the time to act is now.

Half of all children in the UK live in families who will receive universal credit when the rollout is complete. Can we ensure that these children don’t face hardship in the process of moving on to universal credit?

The full CPAG Cost of a Child 2018 report is available on their website

A new measure of poverty

September 26, 2018 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, Guest Blogs No comments

By Graham Whitham

Another week, another story about high levels of poverty in the UK. This time from the Social Metrics Commission who have developed a new measure of poverty. You might understandably ask whether we needed a new measure of poverty but bear with me, this one has a backstory.

Back in 2010 the Labour Government passed the Child Poverty Act. It set in stone four child poverty reduction targets to be met in 2020/21. Fast-forward a few months and the incoming Coalition Government and think tanks such as Policy Exchange, set out concerns about the way in which poverty was being measured. The argument was that the previous government’s approach had been too narrow. Those making such arguments often undermined their position by referring to ‘the child poverty measure’, when in fact four measures had been adopted and sometimes by a simple failure to understand the difference between mean and median averages.

Things came to a head in 2012 when the Government published a poorly written consultation on child poverty measurement. It was rightly panned. The government had reached a dead-end; critical of the measures as set out in the Child Poverty Act, but unable to set out an adequate replacement.

Iain Duncan Smith scrapped the 2020 targets and, in their place, came a duty to report on levels of educational attainment and the number of children in workless households. Given that neither of these things are measures of child poverty, it didn’t exactly solve the problem of government having no meaningful measure or measures of poverty in place around which it could build a coherent strategy.

To overcome the impasse, former special adviser to IDS – Philippa Stroud – set up the Social Metrics Commission. She brought together a panel of experts to establish a new measure of poverty around which a consensus could
be reached.

Graham Whitham

The results were published last week, showing more than 14 million people, including 4.5 million children, are living in poverty in the UK. The new measure does some things the measures in the 2010 Act don’t, for example taking into account savings as well as income and looking at household outgoings.

Whether this has all been worthwhile is another question. It is hoped that it will act as a catalyst for the Government to re-establish a meaningful agenda on poverty. Eight years have been wasted arguing about how poverty should be measured, and these arguments are part of the reason why there is a such a vacuum when it comes to government policy. Only radical steps to halt soaring child rates will have made the work of the Social Mobility Commission worth it.

Good Mentor Hunting

June 13, 2018 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, GMPA No comments

Good Mentor Hunting

Mentor Darren Knight with Corey

The Mentoring Service at Bolton Lads and Girls Club has been matching adults and young people for well over 20 years. The young people who are referred to the Service are identified as particularly vulnerable – they could be living in care, have a chaotic home and family life, and often live in poverty. The Service matches volunteer adults with young people and they then meet once a week for a year in order to spend quality time together. The Mentors’ primary function is to listen and support the young people, and very often find that their young person will want help with a specific task; for instance, homework, tackling anxieties, anger issues or to become more confident. We get great results from our matches and find that the young people improve their self-confidence, self-expression and resilience. The Service aims to empower and equip young people with the skills and confidence they need to lead more positive and successful lives, and to ultimately help towards tackling the negative effects of the poverty in their lives.

Mentor Jackie Lord with Lincoln

Daniel and Paul have been taking part in the Mentor service for 18 months. Paul signed up to become a Mentor in 2016 to Daniel, 16, who has learning difficulties and lives in foster care. Paul tells us a bit about his story: “You offer an independent support to youngsters that doesn’t report to schools, social workers, parents – it can be amazing how the relationship can flourish and grow. The fact that you are an unpaid volunteer is very important to these youngsters – the fact that you are there for them because you want to be … not because you are paid to be is very significant. BLGC are desperate for mentors but particularly male mentors. So all you guys out there PLEASE give it some serious thought – its just a few hours a week but you can make a huge difference to a young person …and really for doing nothing more than offering a pair of ears that are for your young person only.”

Mentor David Quilliam with Lewis

If you are keen to donate your time to one of Bolton’s vulnerable young people, please get in touch with Gemma today by email or call 01204 504111

UK poverty strategy urgently needed

June 13, 2018 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education, Guest Blogs No comments

By Graham Whitham

In 2008 the UK was experiencing falling poverty rates, the number of people sleeping rough was less than half of what it is today and those of us who had heard of food banks thought of them as an American not a British phenomenon.

If someone had said ten years ago that in 2018 the UK’s unemployment rate would be at a 42-year low and that the proportion of workers in low paying jobs would be at its lowest level since 1982, we might have been forgiven for thinking the country was well on its way to meeting the target to reduce the proportion of children experiencing relative poverty to less than 10% by 2020. Instead that
target, and complementary targets set out in 2010 Child Poverty Act, have been scrapped and an extra one million children are expected to fall into poverty in the next few years.

The lack of a central government anti-poverty strategy means that policies are introduced without their impact on poverty rates being considered. Opportunities to meaningfully address poverty through positive measures, such as extra investment in childcare or increases in the minimum wage are missed as other policies, such as cuts to benefits, actively work against them. The lack of a strategy has meant the UK has completely missed the opportunity to harness positive labour market developments. Jobs growth and reductions in the number of people in low-paying work should have resulted in falls in poverty and increases in living standards.

This isn’t just about headline rates of poverty. Policymakers need to understand both the changes in levels of poverty and the risk of poverty among different groups of the population, if they are to develop, adapt and amend policies aimed at tackling the issue. The make-up of poverty has also changed considerably overtime. The risk of poverty for single-parent households, for example, has fluctuated over the last thirty years. Working households now make up a greater proportion of those people experiencing poverty compared to twenty years ago. Families with more than two children have always been at greater risk of poverty, but the level of risk for those families is growing.

Graham Whitham

Recent analysis published by Child Poverty Action Group has identified a worrying trend as poverty in the UK becomes more entrenched. Analysis of the ‘poverty gap’ shows that families in poverty are now living, on average, further below the poverty line than they did ten years ago. This development is highly concerning, with huge swathes of families at risk of being cut adrift way below the poverty line. It is also a significant shift, as the UK has tended to have relatively high levels of child poverty but a low ‘poverty gap’, with lots of families in poverty but with incomes just below the poverty threshold.

New experimental analysis by the ONS looking at expenditure poverty (as opposed to income poverty) further illuminates our understanding of the issue. There is an abundance of data and information about poverty – the UK is ‘data rich’ – but there isn’t the necessary strategy in place nationally to respond to what this data tells us and to ensure policies drive down rather than drive up poverty.

Without a clear strategy capable of dealing with these developments, the UK’s poverty crisis will only get worse and the cost of dealing with it in the future will only get greater.

Top image © Beggar by Banksy

Child Poverty

January 31, 2018 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education No comments

The End Child Poverty coalition last week published new figures on the levels of child poverty in the UK. These reveal that there are now constituencies within the UK where more than half of children are growing up in poverty, compared to one in ten, in the areas with the lowest child poverty rates. The full report and data are available on their website

Among the twenty parliamentary constituencies with the highest levels of childhood poverty, seven are located in London, three in Birmingham, and three in Manchester.

Sam Royston, Chair of End Child Poverty and Director of Policy and Research at the Children’s Society said “No family in modern Britain should be struggling to put food on the table, heat their homes and clothe their children. End Child Poverty is calling on the Chancellor to end the freeze on children’s benefits, and to invest in interest free credit for low income families, to ensure that poverty doesn’t result in spiralling debt.”

Greater Manchester Parliamentary Constituency figures, showing the level of child poverty in that area:

Altrincham & Sale West 14.2%

Ashton in Makerfield 22%

Ashton under Lyne 31.6%

Blackley & Broughton 44.7%

Bolton North East 35.5%

Bolton South East 39.5%

Bolton West 24.4%

Bury North 27.7%

Bury South 26.5%

Cheadle 16%

Denton & Reddish 25.8%

Hazel Grove 18.8%

Heywood & Middleton 28.6%

Leigh 24.3%

Manchester Central 47.5%

Manchester Gorton 48%

Manchester Withington 33.5%

Oldham East & Saddleworth 37.4%

Oldham West & Royton 45.6%

Rochdale 41%

Salford & Eccles 31.2%

Stalybridge & Hyde 30.1%

Stockport 27%

Stretford & Urmston 30.3%

Wigan 27.3%

Worsley & Eccles South 29.6%

Wythenshawe & Sale East 30%

School readiness

September 20, 2017 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education No comments

The Mayor’s focus on school readiness highlights the need for good practice sharing and promotion

By Graham Whitham

Andy Burnham

Today is the first day at school for about 35,000 children across Greater Manchester. Last week Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, set out his plan to focus on early years and ensure that children have the skills and support they need to do well at school.

Despite improvements across Greater Manchester, the city region still lags behind the national average when it comes to the proportion of children who are ‘school ready’ (the government’s measure of whether children have certain basic skills when they start primary school).

The evidence suggests that improvements in school readiness aren’t evenly spread across different households, with children from low income households still much more likely to lack basic skills when they are four and five.

GMPA welcomes the Mayor’s focus on this agenda. A collaborative and joined up approach across GM can ensure that childcare providers, schools, parents and other stakeholders can work together to ensure children in our city region get the best start in life. There are already examples of good practice within and outside GM, and GMPA would like to see more being done to ensure local authorities and others are able to evidence and promote good practice. This extends beyond a focus on early years, to wider family and child poverty strategies and initiatives. Too often, good practice in one part of the country remains under the radar or, where there is awareness of it, can’t be replicated in other areas due to lack of funding.

Fostering a culture of good practice sharing and replication in GM would help the Mayor achieve his aim of illustrating to the rest of the country how public services delivery can be done in a more joined up and preventative way.

GMCA report

Out in the Cold

February 1, 2017 i3oz9s Child Poverty & Education No comments

Benefit freezes and ‘poverty premiums’ leave struggling families out in the cold by End Child Poverty

Rises in the cost of living will outstrip meagre increases in child benefit by 17 times by 2020, a new report from the End Child Poverty coalition has revealed. The coalition’s “Feeling the Pinch” report shows that reductions in the value of benefits, relative to costs of living, are likely to leave a family with two children living in poverty, worse off by as much as £2800 per year by 2020, compared to the start of the decade.

In addition, analysis shows that a family in a typical privately rented two-bedroom property could also have a rent shortfall of around £154 a month by 2020, after a four-year freeze on housing benefit.

At the same time, families in poverty often have to pay more for essentials, despite being least able to afford them (known as the ‘poverty premium’). Essential household items like a cooker, energy and home insurance are likely to cost a family living in poverty nearly £1700 more than a higher income family would have to pay.

The coalition is warning that the disconnect between increases in financial support and those in the costs of living, together with the poverty premium, is leaving many families struggling to buy food for their children, or heat their home in winter.

End Child Poverty is calling on the Government to take action by ending the current four-year freeze on children’s benefits, by increasing help with housing costs in line with local rents and also by establishing a commission to explore how businesses can ensure that customers on a low income don’t end up paying the highest prices for goods and services.

Sam Royston, chair of the End Child Poverty coalition, said: “Families living in poverty are trapped between frozen support, rising costs of living, and a hefty poverty premium which means that they pay the most for basic essentials. End Child Poverty members know all too well the impact this poverty trap has on children’s lives. “

The full report ‘Feeling the Pinch’ from End Child Poverty is available online here

The coalition’s analysis shows that in April 2010, benefit income for an out-of-work single parent with two children (excluding housing costs) was around £198 per week. In order to keep up with the rise in the cost of living by 2020, this would have to increase to around £267 per week. The family’s actual 2020 income is expected to be around £214 per week. The real loss of £53 per week will leave this family worse off by nearly £2,800 a year.

Where private tenants’ rents have risen between 2010 and 2015 in line with average rental price inflation (a total of 11.7 per cent over the five-year period), a family renting a typical two-bedroom property in 2015 faced a shortfall of £82 per month on their Housing Benefit entitlement, compared with their actual rent.

In 2015, the new government decided to freeze local housing allowance rates for four years – from 2016 through to 2020. If actual rents rise by another 11.7 per cent during the second half of the decade, families in a typical two-bedroom property could see the shortfall increase by £72 per month – a total shortfall of around £154 per month.

The poverty premium calculation updates an illustration previously published by Save the Children. It finds that a typical low-income family could face an annual poverty premium of around £1,700 for everyday goods and services. The items included in the calculation are shown in the table below. There may also be other areas of spending that are subject to a premium, such as food costs, transport costs and cash withdrawals. These are not included in the poverty premium
calculation, but are explored further in the full report.

As you may recall in November 2016 End Child Poverty published a Child Poverty map of the UK which clearly showed that parts of Greater Manchester were some of the worst affected by child poverty.

Manchester Central was 2nd in the table of constituencies with the highest percentages of
children in poverty in 2015 and Manchester Gorton, and Blackley & Broughton were also in the top 20.