How you can help children in the UK where 500,000 face absolute poverty in a year
As people across Britain feel the pinch due to soaring inflation, children are sadly expected to be hit the hardest.
Labour has put pressure on the government to bring in one-off windfall tax on the huge profits oil and gas companies are making during the energy crisis.
It follows a grim prediction by the Tories’ rivals that half a million children face being ‘pushed into absolute poverty over the next year’.
Shadow secretary of state for work and pensions Jonathan Ashworth told BBC Radio 4: ‘We are facing a situation where 250,000 households – many families, many pensioners – will be destitute.’
Meanwhile Action for Children – which runs an emergency fund for struggling families – has called on the government to increase the child element of Universal Credit.
New research shows that six months after a £20-a-week cut was brought in, 54% of the charity’s grants were for families on the benefit – suggesting it is failing to help families make ends meet.
The idea of absolute poverty going up in Britain should be very alarming, says Action for Children head of policy and research Joe Lane.
He told Metro.co.uk: ‘The measure should be how quickly it is falling. Any rise is a signal that the economy and people’s living standards are going in the wrong direction.
‘We’re doing everything we can to help the families we support to make ends meet – that challenge is only going to get harder.
‘What we’ve seen from government is they’ve clearly recognised there’s a problem in the last budget.
‘But what they didn’t do is invest in that support for people who are either working already as much as they can, or aren’t able to take on additional work.
‘In particular that falls on young and large families, which is why investing in the child element of Universal Credit is so important.’
Mr Lane says that ultimately the bulk of support needs to come from the government, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a different to people’s lives right now.
So what can you do to help those most in need?
Make a financial donation
Families in poverty often cannot afford to supply the bare necessities for their children.
Benefit freezes, a redundancy or unexpected bill can devastate a household that is struggling to make ends meet.
Donating to a charity can fund both grant-giving schemes that help keep families afloat and welfare action seeking to tackle the causes of child poverty.
Donations can be made as a one-off, monthly or through fundraising challenges, such as marathons, sky dives or sponsored treks.
You can donate to Action for Children here, Family Action here and the Child Poverty Action group here.
Contribute to your local foodbank
New figures released by the Trussell Trust this week show food banks across the UK handed out almost 2.2million emergency food parcels last year.
This included over 830,000 parcels for children, up from 720,000 — an increase of 15% — year on year.
And as the cost of living crisis bites, more and more families could be turning to these services to survive.
Donations are a vital part of ensuring that the banks have enough to give their users a nutritious three day supply of food.
Most places will have an online list of the items they are missing, while some supermarkets also have donation point where food can be dropped off.
But donating to a foodbank can only serve as a temporary help to families in poverty – and is little use in tackling the problem at its core.
You can locate your nearest foodbank here.
Raise money as you shop online
People can raise money for their favourite charities at no extra cost to themselves through Give as you Live Online.
The platform has over 5,500 retailers including everyday brands like Tesco, Asda, B&Q & Morrisons.
As the cost-of-living crisis takes its toll on most people, not everyone will be as willing to give their money to charity, but this scheme aims to get around that problem.
Give as you Live Annabelle Risdon: ‘Despite the difficulties endured by all throughout the first two years of the pandemic alongside the current financial climate, Give as you Live Online is on track to have raised just shy of £2million for UK charities by the end of 2022, showing that charitable giving doesn’t need to cease during turbulent periods.’
Take action and campaign
Child poverty happens as a result of benefit cuts or freezes, low income and high costs, housing issues and insecure work.
The best way to tackle these issues is to not accept them and to demand change from those in charge.
‘Lots of the voluntary sector is doing everything it can to put a sticking plaster on the gaps in financial support.
‘But we’re also, hopefully as loudly as possible, saying to the Government, that it’s its job to make sure that people can make ends meet.
‘We try to balance both things as an organisation. Primarily what we do is help people on a day-to-day, but alongside that we want to be pushing for those wider and bigger changes.
‘I think both of those actions are incredibly valuable. So people should give anything they are willing to give, but also do what they can to highlight the challenges people face to their MPs.’
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