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

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

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%

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 

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.