One London child in three is classified as being “in poverty” and three-quarters of them have at least one parent with a job, according a report for the End Child Poverty coalition of charities.
The report, compiled by the Centre for Research at Loughborough University using data for the financial year 2021/22, also finds that Tower Hamlets is the local authority with, at 47.5 per cent, the highest child poverty rate nationally.
Newham (43.7 per cent), Hackney (43.4 per cent) and Barking & Dagenham (42.1 per cent) also feature in the highest 20 local authorities by that measure. The lowest London borough rates are in Hillingdon (31 per cent), Harrow (30.6 per cent) and Enfield (30.9 per cent).
A household is defined as being in poverty if its income after housing costs are taken into account is below 60 per cent of the local median income.
The overall child poverty rate for London, 32.9 per cent, is found by the report to be fourth highest in the UK as categorised by nation or region, behind the West Midlands (38.4 per cent), the North East (35.2 per cent) and the North West (34.3 per cent). It compares to a rate of 29.2 per cent for the UK as a whole.
Children in lone parents families are particularly likely to be living in poverty, with 48 per cent of London households affected. The same is true of children from ethnic minority groups and those in larger families.
The End Child Poverty Commission says that the year to the end of March 2022 includes six-month period in which the government’s temporary £20 a week increase in Universal Credit was in place and does not cover the months in which the cost of living crisis took effect.
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