£10 extra a week could lift 90,000 Lancashire children out of poverty overnight

Just £10 extra a week could drag thousands of children in Preston and surround ing towns out of poverty.

Child poverty in Lancashire costs £940m-a-year according to new analysis from a campaign group.

The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) includes cost to the economy due to a greater risk of unemployment and a lower earnings potential for adults who grew up in poverty.

It also includes extra money spent on public services to help address the harms caused by poverty to 89,700 children in poverty in Lancashire.

CPAG says the Government must increase child benefit which today is worth £5 per week less than it was in 2010 as a result of austerity era cuts and freezes.

A £10 per week increase in child benefit would lift children out of poverty overnight and put an additional £110m into the local economy as families are better able to buy the things their children need for a decent childhood, say the group.

CPAG’s director of policy Sara Ogilvie said: “Local kids are paying the highest possible price for poverty, in worse health and education outcomes and even lower life expectancy, but there’s also an economic cost that falls on the region’s whole population. Lancashire deserves better.

“Government must invest again in child benefit to bring back opportunity to local families as well as new money into the region’s economy.”

Child benefit has risen in line with inflation since 2020 but was frozen between 2010 and 2014, increased below inflation between 2014 and 2016 and frozen again between 2016 and 2020, leaving it worth £5 a week less today in real terms (for the first child) than it was in 2010.

One-in-four children in the county are living in poverty.

Thirty two-year-old mum-of-three Maria, from Preston, is not surprised that Lancashire has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the UK.

She said: “There's a stigma about being poor, there always has been, but now your are looked down on more than ever if you can't make ends meet and give your kids the things they need.

“You see it at the school gates. The children who have gone to bed hungry the night before and have had nothing for breakfast look tired and pale.

“What chance have they got to succeed in life? It's like they are starting a race with both legs tied together. Schools offer breakfast clubs but a lot of the children are too ashamed to go to them. They don't want to be called 'tramps' and 'scruffs' by the other kids.

“If it was just me, on my own, struggling, I could bear it. But I look at my children and feel like I'm letting them down - not giving them the start in life they deserve. It's not just that we can't afford things like holidays and expensive presents, it's also that I have to buy the cheapest food I can find and even a treat like McDonald's takes weeks of saving money.”

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, more than five million children are growing up in poverty in the UK - a rise of more than one million since 2010.

Definitions of poverty vary from one place to another. However, it is often defined as not having enough income for a person's basic needs such a heating a home, paying rent and buying food, clothes and other essentials for children.

A spokesman for the Foundation said: "In the context of rising rates of poverty and a cost-of-living crisis it is making it increasingly difficult for many families to manage on a day-to-day basis.

"Research shows poverty can impact parenting capacity in material ways such as struggling to provide adequate housing and an inability to provide the basics like food and clothing. It can also affect parents in psychological ways such as experiencing additional stress and fragile mental health. Poverty harms children's health, social and emotional wellbeing, and education.

"Children may go to bed hungry or sleep on a mattress on the floor because there is no money for a bedframe.

" It can mean them missing out on everyday fun and activities because family outings are too expensive and being excluded from going out with friends due to a lack of money.

" Children growing up in poverty on average do less well in education. Gaps open very early before they even start formal education at school. This has an impact on levels of longer-term educational attainment and job opportunities in later life.

"Of the children living below the poverty line in Lancashire, three quarters of them have a working parent."

Pendle in the east of the county has the highest national rates of child poverty.

Out of 317 local authorities, Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn and Burnley all feature high on the list with 440 per cent or more of children coming from families struggling to make ends meet.

A survey conducted by the Department for Work and Pensions showed nearly half of the 9,190 children in Pendle were in low income households.

In stark contrast the poverty levels in the town were eight times that of Richmond Upon Thames.

A family living on below 60 per cent of the current median average income of £28,000 is deemed to be on the breadline.

Last year the number of children living below the poverty line reached a record high of 2.7m, following more than a decade of austerity under the Conservative government.

Blackburn with Darwen had the fifth highest levels of child poverty with more than 14,870 children living in seriously cash-strapped households. This was a more than ten per cent increase since 2015.

Hyndburn was ranked eight worse with 6,789 children in poverty and Burnley ninth with four-out-of-ten (7,851) youngsters struggling.

And the End Child Poverty coalition says latest child poverty figures are a 'stark warning' to the Government saying record numbers of poor children 'isn't the change people voted for'.

For Maria, life continues to be a struggle.

She said: "Just the chance of getting a bit more money every month could make all the difference, especially with Christmas coming up.

"Most weekends I end up going to a community foodbank. I would never criticise the people who give up their time to help people like me or the kind people who donate food, but what is on offer is very basic - a lot of pasta and rice, very few treats.

"And it's sometimes hard to get hold of things like toiletries and washing powder. But those places are still a lifeline for families like me and my kids and it means we have something to eat when the money runs out."

Last year, the Lancashire Anti Poverty Network was established in response to soaring levels of child poverty in the county.

The network works with voluntary and faith groups in Lancashire in a bid to create policy to support those in the poverty trap, especially children.

Meanwhile, CPAG has revealed every local authority in the North West has at least 1,500 school children do not qualify for free school meals because the qualifying criteria is too restrictive.

Figures reveal 3,000 children in poverty in Blackburn with Darwen do not qualify for free dinners, in Blackpool, 2,000 kids go without, and in Lancashire, 15,000 will go hungry.

CPAG's education lead, Kate Anstey, said: "Children in every corner of the North West are sitting in classrooms too hungry to concentrate and learn because they don't qualify for a free school meal.

"Too many children are being let down by the Government's cruel free school meals cut-off threshold - and these numbers should act as a wake-up all.

"The Government must bring in universal free school meals to ensure every child has the food they need and struggling families get breathing space from high costs. Means testing children at lunchtime should be a thing of the past."

Maria has little hopes life will improve or her or her young family post budget. The only thing she is certain of is that this winter will be harder than the last one.

"Everything keeps going up. We sit wrapped in blankets in the living room but eventually it gets so cold that we have to put the heating on," she said. "I cry sometimes when the little ones tell me about the amazing things their friends have done at the weekend, when all we been able to afford is a trip to the park or freezing in front of the telly.

"The oldest one understands the situation. She doesn't ask for things we can't afford and I find that more heartbreaking than anything else.

"They deserve to have the same opportunities as kids from richer families. They shouldn't be allowed to fall by the side of the road and face a life of struggle like her mum."