Poverty means kids going without things they need. Children are arriving at school hungry and unable to concentrate. They are returning to cold homes. And they are missing out on everyday experiences that make up childhood, like school trips, going to birthday parties and having friends round for tea.
On Thursday 21 March, the annual Households Below Average Income (HBAI) report will be released by the Department for Work and Pensions. Estimates are provided for average incomes, income inequality, and for the number and percentage of people living in poverty. The statistics are the UK’s official source of poverty estimates and, with a larger sample size than other surveys, are the main source of data on household and individual incomes.
There was very little in this Budget for children and families living in poverty. The Chancellor said yesterday that this government does not pass on its bills to the next generation, but the 4.2 million children living in poverty today are the next generation. Child poverty is scarring, and the decisions taken yesterday will leave a legacy of cold homes, empty tummies and crumbling classrooms. We are in urgent need of a plan to tackle child poverty.
For almost fifteen years, the four million kids from poor families have been at the bottom of the pile and today is no different. This was a Budget all but blind to buckling family budgets and broken public services and will leave a legacy of crumbling classrooms, cold homes, and empty tummies.
Court of Appeal upholds decision that universal credit payments can be backdated on revision, but claimants risk still being thwarted by DWP IT design flaws and those subject to managed migration face ‘double whammy’ loss of transitional protections and backdated payments.
Managed migration to universal credit is about to expand to DWP legacy benefit claimants. The stakes are high, and we're calling for the DWP to slow down and put more safeguards in place.
CPAG is calling on the government to extend its new timescales for moving people from older benefits to universal credit to prevent vulnerable claimants from falling through the cracks.
Our pre-Budget briefing details how best to invest financial support in children to reduce child poverty and give every child the chance to fulfil their potential.
Universal credit (UC) is higher if you get it alongside certain other benefits, often called relevant benefits. If you get UC and your child qualifies for disability living allowance (DLA), you’re usually entitled to a UC ‘disabled child element’. Unfortunately, these extra UC amounts are not paid automatically when the relevant benefit is awarded, and the onus is placed on claimants to notify the DWP that they are entitled to these additional elements. Evidence collected by CPAG suggests that families are missing out on much-needed financial support as a result of this failure to share information within the DWP. Research on UC conducted by CPAG in 2023 explained the impact this had on carers. This follow-up briefing focuses specifically on the impact for parents of disabled children.
Universal credit (UC) claimants are not always getting extra amounts of UC they’re entitled to when they become eligible for some other benefits because of poor data-sharing within the DWP.