This is child poverty

Introduction

The government has made some progress in lifting children in Britain out of poverty and has promised to halve child poverty by 2010 and end it by 2020. Yet, one in three children in the UK now live in poverty, and the figures are rising again.

Since Citizens Advice was founded in 1939, we have taken part in numerous significant campaigns to improve the lives for children and families. Today we are partners in the Campaign to End Child Poverty and are working with other organisations to encourage government to find new ways to eradicate child poverty in our country.

In June and July 2008, Citizens Advice asked parents across England and Wales to tell us their experiences of struggling to make ends meet, and to show how this impacts on their children.

We have presented some of these stories in this report, in order to provide an insight into the financial, emotional and physical impact of poverty on children.

All children deserve to grow up in an environment where they can prosper, where their family can afford the essentials that many of us take for granted, with access to a free education, good housing and work that pays.

We hope this report will give children and families who live in poverty a voice, to tell the government that more must be done to keep their promise to end child poverty.

David Harker
Chief Executive of Citizens Advice

This is child poverty [ 510 kb]

End child poverty campaign and video