The ten worst-hit areas for child poverty have been named by a charity in a shocking report highlighting a growing issue affecting swathes of the UK.
The End Child Poverty Coalition, consisting of 101 organisations, has called for urgent action after new research shows 4.2 million children were living in poverty in the UK in 2021-22.
London’s Tower Hamlets had the highest percentage of children living in poverty, followed by Birmingham in the West Midlands, Manchester in the northeast, and Sandwell in the West Midlands.
The West Midlands region has the highest proportion of impoverished children in all UK regions, accompanied by the North East, North West and London.
Together with the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, the End Poverty Coalition published data on the number of children living in poverty across the UK.
The report also analysed which families are most likely to experience child poverty.
They found that 71% of children who were in poverty after housing costs, and 67% of those who were in poverty before housing costs, were in a family where at least one adult was working.
The overall child poverty rate in the UK is currently estimated at 29%, but it varies significantly between regions and is also affected by family structure and ethnicity.
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The report estaestablishest 44% of children in lone-parent families are in poverty after housing costs, compared with 25% of children in couple-parent families.
The poverty rate for three or more children was 42%, compared with 23% and 22% among children with one or two, respectively.
Children living in a family where someone is disabled had a poverty rate of 36% after housing costs, compared with 25% for children living in families where no one is disabled. And child disability statistics and regional figures showed that the highest poverty rate for children with a disability is in the West Midlands, where 40.8% of children with a disability live in poverty.
The worrying stats show that even before the coronavirus hit last year, more than 100,000 children across the city lived below the breadline.
The number has risen yearly, increasing from 85,065 youngsters in March 2015.
In three neighbourhoods – including ones in Sparkhill, Sparkbrook and Bordesley Green – shockingly, around three in every four children are thought to be living in poverty.
Also on the list were parts of Small Heath and Handsworth. The complete list can be viewed below.
But shockingly, there are 129 neighbourhoods across the city where at least half of children are estimated to be living below the breadline.
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The figures – divided into areas per 1,500 people – include teenagers up to 19 still living at a place with their parents or carers and are in full-time education or coach.
The proportions are gauged found on DWP figures on the number of children livelihood in families with a family income of less than 60 per cent of the UK mean as of March 2020 and resident estimates from the Office for National Statistics as of mid-2019.
As such, they can only estimate the proportion of children living in poverty – but they give a broad indicator of local areas with a very high or deficient proportion.
Anna Feuchtwang, chair of the End Child Poverty union and chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said: “The memo from this data couldn’t be more precise.
“In the five years forward of the pandemic, child poverty has continued to rise. As the Government rightly focuses on tackling rising firing from the pandemic and its commitment to levelling up, it has to take its record in tackling child poverty seriously.
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Poverty campaigners have identified Britain’s ten poorest and most affluent parliamentary constituencies using a new United Nations rating system.
Scotland’s Glasgow areas of Shettleston, Springburn, Maryhill and Baillieston are among the ten most deprived spots in the UK.
London has three of the worst areas in the league: Camberwell and Peckham, Hackney South and Shoreditch, and Bethnal Green and Bow are the poorest.
The other worst poverty areas in the UK are Birmingham Ladywood, Manchester Central and Liverpool Riverside.
The table was put together according to a United Nations rating system taking account of life expectancy, unemployment, incomes and rates of illiteracy.
The list appears in a new report by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), which the authors said highlighted the need for the Government to step up its efforts to tackle poverty.
The study, Poverty: The Facts, also showed that Scotland had more hypothermia cases and winter deaths during the coldest months than England and Wales.
The CPAG said the significant causes of poverty north of the border were unemployment and economic activity, mainly due to the erosion of manufacturing industries over the past 20 years.
Martin Barnes, CPAG director, said the Government’s pledge to eradicate child poverty needed to go further.
He said a widely-held view remained that poverty was not a severe problem, adding: “The poverty of today is often forced behind closed doors – driven there by stigma, isolation and embarrassment.
