The report from the National Education Union about the dire state of child poverty in the UK and the devastating impact this is having on school children should shame us all (More children are hungry and cold, teachers’ poll suggests, 17 December). Unfortunately, the report comes as no surprise given the number of previous studies with similar findings. We have known for too long that children are now going to school hungry and without adequate clothing, that 3 million children are at risk of going hungry during the school holidays and 5.2 million children will be living in poverty by 2020-21, according to projections by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
The new report nevertheless confirms the shocking reality in a country which is the world’s fifth largest economy. As rabbis we implore the government to start 2019 by doing the following: introduce a proper strategy to decrease child poverty, including re-instituting targets; restore the value of children’s benefits (this alone according to Child Poverty Action Group could result in 300,000 to 400,000 fewer children living in poverty); and make universal credit fit for working families.
Rebecca Birk, Janet Burden, Howard Cooper, Janet Darley, Elana Dellal, Colin Eimer, Warren Elf, Ariel J Friedlander, Dr Margaret Jacobi, Richard Jacobi, Oliver Joseph, Monique Mayer, Jeffrey Newman, Sylvia Rothschild, Marc Saperstein, Fabian Sborovsky, Benji Stanley, Daniela Thau, Pete Tobias, Kath Vardi, Alexandra Wright
• All the impoverished homeless families struggling to survive over Christmas on the broken UK welfare safety net are represented by a family I met this week. Their nine-year-old son is partially sighted, has cerebral palsy and developmental delay. There are two other young children in the family: all three with their father have a British passport but their mother does not, may not work and does not receive benefits. They once had benefits for all three children but the two-child limit has cut that income by a third. The father’s income support of £109.10 a week is cut by the carer’s allowance of £64.60 a week to £44.10. They, with 54,540 other London homeless families, are living in the excruciating uncertainty of temporary accommodation.
They will be given one offer of a permanent home, which they may not refuse. It might be out of London, be in disgusting condition, or move their rent from affordable council housing to unaffordable private housing, for which housing benefit can take their benefits over the benefit cap of £442 a week leaving the father to pay rent from £44 a week income support. The disabled child could be torn from the continuity, stability and care of the special needs school he attends which are so vital to his development.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty
• I claimed universal credit just before my employment contract ended on 6 November. As I’d received £994 wages on 19 October and £185 on 20 November I will get no unemployment support until 5 January. The DWP is satisfied this will cover rent and bills and sustain me for 11 weeks.
Paul Burnett
Leeds
• I nearly cried with rage at James Brokenshire’s denial of government responsibility for the homelessness crisis (Report, 19 December). He places the blame squarely on “addiction and family breakdown” plus LGBT young people being thrown out by their families. He chooses to ignore a slew of research and evidence about the results of New Labour as well as Tory policies, showing a history since 1981 of a shrinking supply of social housing and since 2008 of a huge increase in private unregistered landlords.
Lynne Scrimshaw
London
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