Families with lower incomes are still facing acute financial challenges a year after Labour’s election victory, with larger households the most at risk of relying on loans for everyday essentials, research suggests.
A survey found less well-off families with three or more children are now more likely to be behind on their bills than in 2022 when the research began, while the percentage forced to borrow for food, heating and toiletries has also hit a high of 71%.
The findings suggest larger families are more at risk of acute financial pressures overall, amid widespread calls for the Government to scrap the two-child benefit limit in universal credit.
Nearly nine in 10 surveyed families (88%) reported going without daily essentials, compared with 82% of households with fewer children.
The research found 82% of larger families were found to be in arrears on bills, compared with 66% of households with fewer children and 27% of those without children.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), which conducted the survey, said the results demonstrated the importance of scrapping the two-child limit to deliver improvement in children’s lives.
The JRF also argued that Government efforts to improve family services, early education and access to childcare “must be complemented by measures to boost incomes”.
Maudie Johnson Hunter, economist at the JRF, called for the Government to put families’ financial security “at the heart of everything they do” as the cost of living “is still grinding them down”.
She added: “The Government can rewrite this story of enduring hardship.
“It has already begun with its plans to give children the best start in life by expanding family services and making high-quality childcare and early years education more accessible.
“But record numbers of large families are in arrears or have no choice but to take out loans to pay for essentials.
“Scrapping the two-child limit in universal credit would make an immediate difference to these children’s lives.
“The Government must put families’ financial security at the heart of everything they do.
“They must get on with giving low-income families some breathing room from the latest bill rise or overdue rent payment.
“Only then can we swap out the present story of precariousness with one of stability for every family.”
The latest official estimates, for the year to March 2024, suggest there were a record 4.45 million children living in poverty in the UK.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza recently said some young people in England are living in an “almost-Dickensian level of poverty” and insisted the two-child limit must be scrapped.
The Government is expected to publish a child poverty strategy in the autumn.
When MPs debated welfare reforms last week, Government frontbenchers rolled back on their plan to reform the separate personal independence payment benefit, vowing to revisit any proposed changes only after a review by social security minister Sir Stephen Timms.
The research showed that families with the 40% lowest incomes which include someone with a disability face higher rates of hardship.
Of these families, 69% have gone without everyday essentials compared with 54% of families with no disabled people.
These rates increase for working-age families in receipt of disability benefits, with 78% of these households going without essentials.
This rises to 88% for families with children.
The two-child benefit limit came into effect under the Conservatives in April 2017.
The Government has been approached for comment.
