Number of UK children living in destitution almost triples in five years

Around a million children in the UK experienced destitution in 2022—almost three times as many as in 2017—meaning that their families lacked the means to keep them clean, fed, and warm, shows a report funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.1From 2017 to 2022 the number of people of any age living in destitution in the UK more than doubled, rising from 1.55 million to 3.8 million. But the rise in the number of children in destitution was much higher, rising by 186% from 365 000 in 2017 to around a million in 2023.2Suzanne Fitzpatrick of the Institute for Social Policy, Housing, Equalities Research (I-SPHERE) at Heriot-Watt University, who is a coauthor of the report, called the findings “morally reprehensible” and put the blame squarely on the government. “To have these horrifying levels of destitution in a country like ours is a political choice,” she said.A person is considered to be…
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