3.8 million British kids are living in poverty
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| credit: Daily Mirror
on: Friday, 25 November 2011
Origional source: Click here for original article
POVERTY ruins the lives of one-third of British children and welfare cuts will hit more, ministers have been warned.
Around 3.8 million youngsters in the UK are deprived, according to a report by the four national Children’s Commissioners.
Wales’ Keith Towler, speaking for the Commissioners, said: “We continue to see society’s most vulnerable being denied a childhood.
“We are deeply concerned that we’re in real danger of pushing more families into poverty.”
The warning came after 18 Church of England bishops spoke out against the Welfare Reform Bill – to be debated in the House of Lords this week – which aims to cap benefits for families at £500 a week.
The bishops back amendments drawn up by the Children’s Society which wants to see child benefit removed from household income when the level of the cap is calculated, and a period of grace for newly unemployed families.
The bishops wrote: “We feel compelled to speak for children who might be faced with severe poverty and homelessness, as a result of the choices or circumstances of their parents. Such an impact is profoundly unjust.”
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls said the bishops “have got a point” adding that the poorest in society were bearing the brunt of the Government’s cuts.
But a Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “It isn’t fair that households on benefits can receive a greater income from the state than the average working household gets in wages.
“This is why we have proposed a benefit cap of around £500 per week for couples and single parent households – the equivalent of £35,000 a year before tax.”
