What it is really like for children growing up in poverty in the UK in 2019. <br /> <br />The facts: <br />- 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2018-19. That's 30 per cent of children, or nine in a classroom of 30. <br />- 44 per cent of children living in lone-parent families are in poverty. Lone parents face a higher risk of poverty due to the lack of an additional earner, low rates of maintenance payments, gender inequality in employment and pay, and childcare costs. <br />- Children from black and minority ethnic groups are more likely to be in poverty: 46 per cent are now in poverty, compared with 26 per cent of children in White British families. <br />- Work does not provide a guaranteed route out of poverty in the UK. 72 per cent of children growing up in poverty live in a household where at least one person works. <br />- Children in large families are at a far greater risk of living in poverty – 43 per cent of children living in families with 3 or more children live in poverty. <br />- Childcare and housing are two of the costs that take the biggest toll on families’ budgets. <br /> <br />Between 1998 and 2003 reducing child poverty was made a priority - with a comprehensive strategy and investment in children - and the number of children in poverty fell by 600,000. <br />Removing the two-child limit and the benefit cap would lift 100,000s of children out of poverty. <br />Increasing child benefit would substantially reduce child poverty as well as providing support to all families with the extra costs children bring.
