CHILDREN in England are living in “Dickensian” poverty, according to a major new report which calls on the UK Government to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has published a new report detailing how children are going without food and proper hygiene while living in cramped conditions.
Her report, which was commissioned by the UK Government, drew on the experiences of 128 children across England between January and March this year.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, de Souza (below) said she had been Children’s Commissioner for England for four years but was shocked “by how much worse things have got”.
She added: “It really is Dickensian and there are a huge number of children now who have dropped below what anyone of us would think is reasonable.
“The children who have got no food to eat, the children who can't wash their clothes so they are going to school dirty and if they're lucky the school are washing their clothes for them.
“I had one child tell me about his shame because he couldn't have his friends round because in the night rats came and bit his face.”
The report was commissioned by the Government as it works on developing a strategy to tackle child poverty. A child poverty taskforce had been due to report back in the spring but this has been delayed to the autumn.
Alongside the Children’s Commissioners of the other three UK nations, de Souza has called for the UK Government to scrap the two-child cap, which prevents most families from claiming benefits for children above their first two.
This would cost the UK Government about £3.4 billion per year and lift 500,000 children out of poverty, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank.
Around 1.6 million children live in families affected by the cap, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Kirsty Blackman (above), the SNP’s work and pensions spokesperson, said: “This report shows just how far broken, Brexit Britain has fallen and stands as a damning indictment of Westminster – England’s Children’s Commissioner has described Dickensian levels of poverty and she is absolutely categorical that the two-child cap must go.
“The SNP Scottish Government has taken decisive action to end the two-child cap yet despite commissioning this report, it seems the UK Labour Government will ignore the warnings and leave thousands of children in poverty.
“If the Labour Government copied SNP Scottish Government action on child poverty, 2.3m families would be lifted out of poverty – that means ending the two-child cap, abolishing the bedroom tax and matching the Scottish Child Payment, something which you’d expect from any government serious about ending child poverty.”
A UK Government spokesperson told the BBC ministers were "determined to bring down child poverty" and pointed to a £1bn package of support, including funding to feed the poorest children outside of term time.
