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‘Rent is driving many families into destitution’: why are 4 million children living in poverty?
Nearly a third of children live in families in poverty. Here, the chief executive of anti-poverty charity the Trussell Trust, which supports the UK’s largest network of food banks, explains the magnitude of the situation
It’s not the start in life anyone plans for their child, and yet according to analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), there were 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2019-20, which equates to 31% of children, or nine in a classroom of 30. For larger families, this number rises to 42%. And for black and minority ethnic groups the figures are even more stark: almost half (46%) are now in poverty, compared with 26% of children in white British families.
In 1979, sociologist Peter Townsend, a founding member of CPAG, formulated a definition of poverty still widely accepted as the standard today: “Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack resources to obtain the type of diet, participate in the activities and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or at least widely encouraged and approved, in the societies in which they belong.”
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