Number of children in poverty “likely to increase” due to coronavirus

By Rafi Benady

The number of children living in poverty in South London has rocketed over the past six years, and experts warn this is likely to get worse due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Figures recently released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that the number of children living in London as a whole has risen by 17 per cent as a whole.

South and West London match the trend – the boroughs of Bexley, Merton and Greenwich saw rises of more than 16 per cent.

The boroughs of Lambeth and Southwark saw smaller rises of 12.5 per cent and six per cent respectively.

Westminster had the highest spike in child poverty of all the West London boroughs, seeing a 20 per cent rise.

Hammersmith and Fulham saw a 16.5 per cent increase, and Kensington and Chelsea a 10.5 per cent increase.

The borough with the largest portion of children in poverty remains Wandsworth, with 22.6 per cent.

A government spokesman said: “Typically, a household is in poverty if its income is less than 60 per cent of median household income.”

Laurence Guinness, chief executive of London charity the Childhood Trust, said the figures are concerning, and coronavirus are likely to make them worse.

He said: “In London there are 700,000 children living in poverty, that’s one third of all children.

“In some boroughs, up to half the children are living in poverty.

“The scale of increase is alarming in and of itself but the trend is probably more alarming, particularly in the context of current events.”

He pointed out that most people living in poverty in the capital are in work – and he warned they will be vulnerable to job losses, temporary lay-offs and pay cuts.

He added: “I think we’re going to see massive rent defaults and massive energy bill defaults – and a huge burden of debt on those who have no prospect of ever paying that debt back.”

Louisa McGeehan, director of policy, rights and advocacy at the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), agreed that Coronavirus would worsen the current situation for poorer families.

She said: “We really welcome the extra support that the government has put in place, working quickly to protect people’s incomes and protect jobs, but what’s missing is any sort of response that targets children growing up in poverty.

“So we are asking them to increase support for children in low income families by increasing child benefits, as our calculations show this will have the biggest impact on child poverty.

A DWP spokesman said: “The latest figures show that across the country the number of children and pensioners in households below average income has fallen by 200,000 compared to 2010, but there is more we must do to address this imbalance.

“This Government is wholly committed to supporting the lowest paid families and has already taken significant steps including raising the living wage, ending the benefit freeze and increasing work incentives.

“It is too early to tell what the impact of Covid-19 will be, but the DWP and the Treasury have implemented a series of measures worth more than £6.5bn to ensure families have access to money now in these unprecedented times.”