Child Poverty Action Group

Fleeing from persecution to seek protection in a different country places already vulnerable families in a precarious position. Often families are forced to live on amounts that fall far short of providing for their basic needs and which place them well below the poverty line as their asylum claim is processed, which can take several months or even years.

The issue of migrant poverty and employment is complex and migrants’ experiences in the UK differ enormously. While some of these variations stem from the uniqueness of individual experience, others relate to the migrant’s particular immigration status and her/his associated right to reside in the UK and to access work.

Although migrants are a diverse group in terms of their employment and earnings, their children are disproportionally represented among those living in poverty in the UK. Poverty impacts on migrant children’s educational outcomes, but also on their social experiences at school. Child poverty also limits the chances of inter-generational mobility among migrants and, in some communities, poor labour market outcomes are becoming entrenched.

Ignorance on the part of central and local government officials, exacerbated by the pressure of budget constraints, make migrants and their families particularly vulnerable to being unlawfully refused access to welfare benefits, housing and social services. This article is part of a special Poverty issue (no. 138) on migration, migrants and child poverty.

Many different groups of migrant children may be at particular risk of poor health and limited access to healthcare. These include unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (who have applied for asylum in their own right) and children who are dependants of asylum-seeking adults,

A new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that the Coalition Government’s Emergency Budget hit families with children hardest. Here, Mike Brewer, James Browne and Peter Levell summarise the analysis of who will bear the brunt of the Government’s deficit-busting plans.

Ever since New Labour first set the welfare reform bandwagon in motion in 2006, the mantra of work has been used by all sides of the political spectrum as ‘proof’ that the benefits system is in need of large-scale reform.

The physical health of children today is arguably the best it has been since the Second World War, with their environments and nutrition substantially improved. However, while their physical health has improved through measures such as immunisation and better access to healthcare, mental health problems among children have increased.

"What have the Romans ever done for us?" asked the People’s Front of Judea in the Life of Brian’s fictional recording of ungrateful subjects ignoring their rulers’ largesse.

Child poverty is not a discrete social problem that can be eradicated without tackling wider inequalities of income and wealth. As the recent National Equality Panel report demonstrates, earnings, income and wealth are all distributed highly unequally, thereby undermining the goal of ‘equality of opportunity’ for children espoused by the main political parties. Social class interacts with other social divisions such as gender, ethnicity and disability to shape the contours of poverty and inequality. Ruth Lister argues that a multi-pronged (gendered) strategy is required, which explicitly aims to create a more equal society within which all children can flourish.