Rise in child poverty among working families, claims TUC

The number of children living in working families in poverty has risen by one million over the last eight years, analysis by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) shows. The analysis estimates that 3.1 children with working parents will be living in poverty this financial year (2018/19), compared with 2.1 million in 2010. It adds that children with at least one working parent will account for two thirds of all children living in poverty in 2018. The TUC says that pay freezes and in work benefit cuts are the key factors for the rise. “Child poverty in working households has shot up since 2010,” said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady. “Years of falling incomes and benefit cuts have had a terrible human cost. Millions of parents are struggling to feed and clothe their children. The government is in denial about how many working families just can’t make ends meet.” She called on the government to increase the minimum wage and overhaul the benefits system to lift working families out of poverty. “We need ministers to boost the minimum wage now, and use the social security system to make sure no child grows up in a family struggling to get by,” she added. Read more.