ReportTitle-NatCenSocialResearch.doc

Child Poverty in Britain Headline findings from NatCen’s latest research Authors: Matt Barnes (matt.barnes@natcen.ac.uk) and Hannah Silvester (hannah.silvester@natcen.ac.uk) Last update: May 2013 Executive summary There are over 3.5 million children living in income poverty in the UK today, a figure that indicates how much work remains to be done to meet the target of eradicating child poverty enshrined in The Child Poverty Act 2010. In order to develop policies to tackle child poverty, government needs to understand the causes and consequences of living in a low-income household. This paper, which summarises NatCen’s recent research into child poverty, examines the characteristics of child poverty; how people perceive child poverty; how growing up in poverty affects children; and some of the underlying causes of child poverty. Our research underlines the general agreement that worklessness is the main driver of child poverty; highlights how the availability of suitable early-years education and childcare is one of the key factors that enables families to secure and sustain work; and reveals the ways in which poverty is multi-dimensional, and not simply restricted to living on low income. Characteristics of poverty In conjunction with Demos, NatCen created a model by which poverty can be understood in a multi-dimensional way. A set of 20 indicators were applied to those with incomes below 70 per cent of the median in Understanding Society: The UK Household Longitudinal Survey. Fifteen different cohorts of poverty were described as a result, five of which contained families with children. Single parents –usually young mothers -without work were found to be most deprived. Sustainable employment and appropriate childcare are needed by this group to improve the outcomes their children are likely to experience should they become persistently poor. ScotCen, using data from the Scottish Household Survey, also used a range of indicators (including worklessness and overc