Revealed: The 10 worst areas for child poverty in the UK

Updated 5 June 2023 at 0:51 pm·4-min read

Trussell Trust Food Bank box for a family with three children waiting for distribution in the Wadebridge foodbank, North Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The box has been prepared by volunteers and contains non-perishable food items. (Photo by In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images) — Almost one in three children in the UK are living in poverty, a report has found. (Getty)

The 10 worst-hit areas for child poverty have been named by a charity in a shocking report that highlights 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 north east, and Sandwell, also in the West Midlands.

The West Midlands region has the highest proportion of children in poverty of all UK regions, followed 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 10 UK local authorities with the highest child poverty rates were:

Tower Hamlets in London has the highest percentage of children in poverty in the UK, but the West Midlands have the most overall of any region. (End Child Poverty)

The overall child poverty rate in the UK is currently estimated at 29%, but varies greatly between regions and is also affected by elements such as family structure and ethnicity.

The report found that 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 children in families with three or more children was 42%, compared with 23% and 22% among children in families with one or two children, 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 rate of poverty for children with a disability is in the West Midlands, where 40.8% of children with a disability live in poverty.

Having analysed ethnicity as a factor, the report revealed persistent ethnic inequalities in child poverty across the UK. Some 47% of children in Asian or Asian British households and 53% of those in Black households were in poverty after housing costs, compared with just 25% of those where the head of household was White.

End Child Poverty have analysed child poverty data in the UK by region. (End Child Poverty)

Joseph Howes, chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, told Yahoo News UK that the lingering effects of COVID lockdowns coupled with the current cost of living crisis had fuelled the rise in child poverty in the UK. He appealed to people to write to their local MP and join the campaign to abolish the two child limit for people claiming Universal Credit benefits.

He said: “The pandemic and cost of living crisis have meant more and more children are having to go without food and a warm home. These statistics show that the trends in child poverty are particularly worrying in parts of the UK such as the North East and Midlands.

“There is one policy change that we know would make a direct and immediate difference, and that is to scrap the two-child limit for those claiming Universal Credit. The policy is unfair in the indiscriminate impact it has on children, and there is no evidence it has achieved its aims. Abolishing the two-child limit would immediately lift 250,000 children out of poverty, and the government could make this change now."

Howes said the coalition was "encouraged" to hear in January that the Labour Party is reviewing the two-child limit, but added: "They must commit to scrapping it altogether ahead of the next election if they are to successfully deliver on their commitment to lead an assault on child poverty."

The report concluded that as the data presented does not yet cover the current cost of living crisis’ and persistently high inflation, as it only covers to the end of 2022, researchers expect that in next year’s data the situation will almost certainly have got worse rather than better.