Child poverty rose in Mansfield before Covid-19 pandemic

With child poverty hitting ‘devastatingly high’ levels across the UK, charities are urging the Government to take action to prevent more families from falling into hardship when the crisis ends.

Department for Work and Pensions data shows in Mansfield 3,911 children aged under 16 were living in families with low incomes in 2019-20 – an estimated 19 per cent of all youngsters in the area.

That was up from 18 per cet the year before.

A family is defined as in low income if it earns less than 60 per cent of the national median household income before housing costs are considered.

Families are included in the figures if they have claimed child benefit alongside another means of support, such as Universal Credit, tax credits or housing benefit, at some point in the year.

Of the children in poverty in Mansfield last year, 1,164 (30 per cent) were below school age.

The majority of children (65 per cent) were in working households, while 42 per cent were in lone-parent families.

They were among 158,500 under-16s in poverty across the East Midlands as a whole last year.

Different figures show that across the UK, a record 3.2 million children were living in relative poverty in 2019-20 – with the figure rising to 4.3 million after housing costs were taken into account.

Imran Hussain, director of policy and campaigns at charity Action for Children, said: "The Government is in denial over child poverty which continues to rise and threatens to torpedo its flagship plans for levelling up.

"Experts have warned that child poverty will rise even further after the pandemic, with working families facing a double threat this coming winter to their living standards as unemployment peaks and Universal Credit is cut. Three-quarters of children in poverty live in working families."