"The United States has just experienced the largest spike in child poverty since the current models for measuring economic distress were developed in 2009. All of the record gains made against child poverty over the previous two years have been erased.
The reason for this extraordinary rise in poverty? Not the pandemic. Not a vicious recession."
"child #poverty more than doubled between 2021 & 2022...
And the thing is, this didn’t have to happen... It was instead a #political choice. The story is in fact quite simple: #Republicans & a handful of conservative #Democrats blocked the extension of federal programs that had drastically reduced #ChildPoverty over the previous two years, and as a result just about all of the gains were lost.
"The Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit produced a dramatic decline in child poverty for all racial groups. Rather than continue the success of the pandemic anti-poverty policies, conservative policymakers chose to condemn more children to #poverty by letting [these] policies expire"
-- from @aaustin https://cepr.net/conservative-politicians-choose-higher-child-poverty-rates/
‘So why no mention of the £25-a-week-per-child Scottish child payment that the Scottish government introduced to mitigate the dangerously low levels of welfare benefits mandated by the UK government?”
Maitliss says "they've just got to not be incompetent, or not be cruel, or not be divided." But #Labour are both incompetent and divided: their handling of the £28 Bn pledge demonstrates both those things; and they are cruel, their silence on #GazaGenocide, on #Refugees, on #ChildPoverty demonstrates that. So what ARE they for?
The News Agents: Why is Starmer running scared of his own policies?
What is nor alluded to is that the Scottish government have worked to alleviate this in as much as they can. The branch party in Holyrood was generally supportive but the mother ship has no intention of removing the cap if Labour MPs are to be believed.
Given the long term policy of the pensions 'triple lock' has lifted many pensioners out of relative poverty (even if our pensions remain low by international standards), it make sense to suggest that a similarly long-term political commitment on child poverty is required - a 'child's lock' commitment to raise child-related benefits to a higher level & track them to rises in earnings & inflation.
"The lack of discussion about child poverty from the National-led coalition government is concerning. This government is focused on getting people into work, but we know over half of the children in poverty are in households with at least two, sometimes three or four incomes."
Associate Professor #MikeOBrien, Child Poverty Action Group
Child poverty is not an intractable problem; policy has been key in both its expansion & is how we can tackle it.
Again, the last fifteen years may not have been the only cause of a social problem but have compounded it & in many cases have seen policy choices intended to make things worse for the vulnerable.
After the election we need to see a sea change in socio-political attitudes & actions... whether we will is another issue altogether!
The UK's record on child poverty is dire (both in absolute terms of worsening & in comparison to other countries).
Looking at the difference depending on number of children in households (and the timing) suggests benefits changes & austerity have a lot to do with this failure.
Moreover, those effected by child poverty often feel the effects throughout their (working) lives... so once again, effectively the last 15 years have seen class war of poor children.
🚸Worldwide, about 800 million children live below the #poverty line of US$3.20 a day, according to @unicef. In #Luxembourg, one in four #children live below the poverty line, which is defined at the EU level as 60% of the median income. It’s one of the highest in the #EU.
🎙️Listen to the new SciLux episode for an inspiring discussion on #childpoverty with our two guests: Prof. Olivier De Schutter & Dr Anne-Catherine Guio.