Dame Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner for England, has recently made a sobering assessment on children’s living conditions in the UK. She articulates their conditions as being like “Dickensian” level poverty. In a recent report, she highlighted that many children live in homes infested with rats, consider bacon a luxury food item, and lack basic hygiene facilities. This deeply troubling reality is the result of federal government welfare reforms and increasing costs of living.
Dame Rachel’s conclusions are based on the testimony of 128 Experiencers children. These children were the subjects of a nationwide survey conducted between January and March of this year. During our conversation, she told us that families have been living in these overcrowded and unsafe conditions as often as once a week. The two-child benefit cap was rolled out by the Conservative party in 2017. Given that these benefits are largely means-tested, this policy has increased financial hardship for families with several children born after April of that year. Department for Work and Pensions figures show almost 1.6 million children are currently living in affected households. The implications of this are far-reaching, emphasizing the expansive reach of these regulations.
Dame Meg Hillier, a member of parliament, has called the effect of these reforms ‘seismic’. Just last week, she visited a family of five crammed into a one-bedroom council flat. This one family alone has to operate in this incredibly cramped space, which has serious repercussions on their quality of life.
“I visited a man working in a good job, three children and his wife in a one-bedroom flat – so five of them in one bedroom. When the baby’s ill they have to go and sleep in the small living room,” – Dame Meg Hillier
The deeply shocking living standards raised alarm from all political parties. The Liberal Democrats, Green Party, Reform, SNP and Plaid Cymru support immediate removal of the two-child benefit cap. They argued this change is necessary to step up and support struggling families. Debates about raising or removing this cap have made their way into the highest levels of government, even being considered by the current Labour government. That’s why the current Education Secretary co-leads the new child poverty taskforce. Thus far, they have refused to pledge to improve their policy or institute any new basic protections.
Dame Rachel’s report should make us recoil from the charmed existence afforded to childhood in the UK today.
“The children who have got no food to eat, the children who can’t wash their clothes so they are going to school dirty and if they’re lucky the school are washing their clothes for them,” – Dame Rachel
The detrimental effects of poverty on children’s health and wellbeing have long been established, for too many live with the emotional trauma that unfathomable poverty brings. Today @Meg_Hillier done gooodd with a v powerful story, example of a far away child feeling ashamed. This third grader was unable to have friends over to play, due to rat infestations in his housing unit.
“I had one child tell me about his shame because he couldn’t have his friends round because in the night rats came and bit his face,” – Dame Meg Hillier
In light of these challenges, the government last year pledged a £1 billion package to strengthen crisis support to families. This package provides for expanded funds to keep the most impoverished children from starving when there’s no school to feed them in the summertime recess. Yet, as many critics point out, this support fails to get to the heart of issues fueling growing child poverty rates.
Dame Rachel underlined that families do not decide to have children just for financial support.
“Nobody is choosing to have children so they can get money from the state. That is absolutely not what’s happening here,” – Dame Rachel
She made a great point that we do not want to frame welfare assistance as a cost. Rather it should be treated as the important relief that it is for struggling families.
“We shouldn’t be seeing it as a trade-off,” – Dame Meg Hillier
Government to use the report to develop a joined-up strategy to eradicate child poverty. We are looking forward to its release this fall. Public debates around immigration and welfare reforms and their impacts on working, vulnerable families have yet to settle. Advocates are urging Congress to act quickly to improve housing conditions for millions of children nationwide.
