This report concentrates on the impact of COVID 19 on families living in Scotland and highlights that many families are struggling financially due to inadequate support from the social security system and/or being unable to work while schools and childcare providers are closed.
Our response to the Scottish Government's consultation on Housing to 2040 highlights the role housing can play in tackling child poverty and the interaction between social security and people's ability to pay their housing costs.
This report has been developed by the A Different Take London panel. We are a group of children, young people and parents with experience of living on a low income, and people from Child Poverty Action Group and the University of Leeds. Between January–June 2019 we have been discussing our own experiences and priorities and talking to the people in our communities, to develop our own agenda around the most important issues affecting the lives of people in poverty and what we think should be done about them.
Tower Hamlets has the highest rate of child poverty in the UK: 57 per cent, after housing costs are taken into account. In 2017, Tower Hamlets became one of the first boroughs in London to become a universal credit ‘full service’ area. The London Borough of Tower Hamlets commissioned CPAG to research the experiences of families with children in receipt of universal credit.
CPAG in Scotland responded to the Scottish Government's consultation on improving temporary accommodation standards to highlight the need to incorporate the impact of social security changes into guidance on the standards.
Universal credit: what needs to change to reduce child poverty and make it fit for families? calls for design and funding changes to improve claimants’ experience of universal credit and to reduce child poverty.
This report shows parents struggled more than ever to provide a decent standard of living for their families in 2013. This is the second in a series of annual reports on the cost of bringing up a child in the UK.