Statistics released on Thursday showed that years of growing relative poverty were reversed after ministers introduced a temporary extra 20 20 a week into universal credit in April 2020, along with additional housing support, leave and other measures in response to the Covid epidemic. As a result, the incomes of the poorest 20% of households rose by 4% and unemployment remained low, with activists announcing it as proof that investing in social security was an effective way to lift children out of poverty. There were 3.9 million children in relative poverty – defined as households receiving less than 60% of average annual income – in the first year of the pandemic, the data showed, equivalent to 27% of all children in the UK and reduced by 400,000 year on year. Campaigners and experts said the statistics showed that this progress was likely to be a one-off, with the withdrawal of the extra λι 20 a week, combined with rising food and energy costs and rising benefits below. from inflation, would affect households. standard of living from April. Ministers canceled the 20 20-a-week boost along with other pandemic support measures in October, arguing – despite widespread opposition – that the government’s focus should be on putting people to jobs and better-paying jobs as the economy. The UK is gradually sinking into a rising cost-of-living crisis, with living standards falling at its fastest pace since the 1950s. accumulating pressure on already distressed low-income households. The Resolution Foundation think tank estimates that 1.3 million people, including 500,000 children, could be plunged into absolute poverty in the coming months as a result of ministers’ decision to increase benefits and the state pension to less than half inflation. % – equivalent to a reduction of £ 11 billion in the value of support. “The lack of targeted support in the recent Spring Declaration means that household incomes are going to fall more sharply during the pandemic recovery than during the pandemic itself. It’s important to provide more support to reverse this gloomy a livelihood perspective, “said Adam Corlett, chief economist at Resolution Foundation. The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) said the data showed that ministers had “the power to protect children from poverty”, but their failure to provide serious assistance in last week’s spring statement showed that they had “returned the back “to families struggling with cost. of the living crisis. “Many of the children who came out of poverty with the λι 20 increase in universal credit have already been forced to return to the brink due to government actions. “And as millions struggle with rising costs, we know the picture will get worse,” said CPAG CEO Alison Garnham. Analysis of the End Child Poverty Coalition data revealed the highest levels of child poverty at the local level in 2020-21 were recorded in Middlesbrough, where 42% of children lived below the food threshold. At the county level, 51% of all children in Birmingham Hodge Hill were in poverty. Rishi Sunak’s spring statement included a 5 percentage point reduction in fuel tax and an increase in the national insurance threshold, but rejected calls for an increase in inflation-friendly benefits and the chancellor was widely criticized for ignoring households struggling with the cost of living. . Boris Johnson promised a committee of lawmakers Wednesday he would consider a proposal to increase universal credit under inflation after Conservative MP Mel Strind warned him that the claimants would “really suffer” as a result of the increase in benefits under him. inflation. Labor and Pensions Minister Thérèse Coffey said in a statement on Thursday that the focus would remain on boosting income through finding work, while a government spokesman insisted that work was “the best and most sustainable way out of poverty”. Shadow Affairs and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Asworth said the cut in the 20 20 credit overall increase had removed a vital lifeline. “This choice, combined with rising energy bills, Tory tax increases and real-time cuts to universal credit and state pensions, means hard-pressed families are now facing the worst drop in living standards ever recorded. ».
