Middlesbrough MP calls for removal of two child benefit cap after poverty report

A Teesside constituency has the highest level of child poverty in North East England, according to a new report.

The statistics come from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, who have recently released a report titled: “UK Poverty 2025”, which “sets out the nature of poverty in the UK in the run-up to 2024's General Election. It also sets out the scale of action necessary for the Government to deliver the change it has promised”.

Middlesbrough and Thornaby East had the highest rate of child poverty out of all constituencies in the North East, with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimating that 43% of children in the constituency lived in poverty, after housing costs in 2022/23.

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Poverty is defined in the report as “when your resources are well below what is enough to meet your minimum needs, including taking part in society”. The Foundation’s preferred definition of poverty in the report was in the form of “relative poverty after housing costs”.

Relative poverty after housing costs was defined as “where someone’s household income after they have paid their housing costs is below 60% of the median, adjusted for family size and composition. This looks at whether the incomes of poorer households are catching up with average incomes”.

Poverty rates around the country vary significantly between nations and regions. The poverty rate in the North East of England is 21%, which is now slightly lower than the UK average of 22%. The highest poverty rate in the country is in the West Midlands, with 27% of the population living below the poverty threshold, whilst the East of England has the lowest poverty rate, at 18%.

The figures mean that there are approximately 600,000 people living in poverty across the North East of the country, which encompasses the 12 local authorities including the five councils across the Tees Valley, all the way up to Northumberland. Across the UK, the report estimates that 14.4m people live in poverty. In other words, more than one in five people lived in poverty in the UK in 2022/23.

The report said: “The picture compared to 2021/22 is one of stability: child poverty rose slightly, pensioner poverty fell slightly, and working-age adult poverty stayed the same. Poverty for all three groups has returned to around pre-pandemic levels, rising after average incomes recovered after the pandemic, at the same time as a range of temporary coronavirus-related support was withdrawn.”

Another noticeable statistic regarded salaries, with a “substantial disparity in average earnings across UK nations and regions, with the median earner earning up to 10% less in the North East than the national average”.

Asked about the town’s dire poverty child poverty rate, Labour ’s Andy McDonald, MP for Middlesbrough and Thornaby East, said: "It is utterly heartbreaking to see these latest figures released by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation - one child in poverty is too many and we must get on with the job of eradicating it for good.

"We know the scale of the challenge the Labour Government inherited following 14 years of Conservative rule and that is why we launched a child poverty taskforce to really look in depth at this issue and the various strands that feed into the causes of child poverty.

"However, what the evidence consistently shows is that the removal of the two child benefit limit would put us swiftly onto the right path lifting 300,000 children nationally out of poverty immediately and a further 700,000 children living in less poverty immediately. For that reason I am 100 per cent supportive of lifting the existing cruel Tory cap."

During the General Election campaign last year, while on a visit to Redcar, then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak discussed child poverty and defended the Conservative Party ’s record on the issue. He said: "Of course there's more to do and the best way to ensure that children don't grow up in poverty is to make sure their mums and dads have great jobs. It's what the evidence shows. Things like the Freeport that has been delivered in the region are so important because they provide more high quality well paid jobs.”

While Andy McDonald has voiced his opposition against the two child benefit cap (and expressed his “dissatisfaction through abstention” during the 2024 vote in parliament), it is Labour’s policy to keep the cap in place for the foreseeable future.

The Department for Work and Pensions were contacted for comment and asked about the two child benefit cap. A government spokesperson said: “No child should be in poverty – that’s why our Ministerial Taskforce is exploring all levers available across government to give children across the United Kingdom the best start in life, while our Plan for Change will raise living standards across the country.

“As we fix the foundations of the economy, we’re increasing the Living Wage, uprating benefits and supporting 700,000 of the poorest families with children by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions to help low-income families and make everyone better off.”

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