First, the bad news – child poverty is still a key challenge for Wales. The latest surveys paint a shocking picture of how well children and young people are faring. Eradicating child poverty used to be the official target of the Welsh government, until they dropped it in 2016. Today one in four kids is raised in a family that takes home under 60% of the national median. This ongoing condition marks them as too poor to live. In addition, an increasing share are failing to escape from deep poverty, defined as living on less than 40% of the national average income.
In 2022, more than 8,000 children and young people took part in a survey organized by Ms. Cifuentes’ office. What we found was a deeply troubling trend. Almost half the respondents noted that they are constantly concerned about their families being able to provide for their families, including access to food. This new data further highlights the need for meaningful action to fight back against child poverty across the region.
Ms. Cifuentes has already started to lay out a detailed set of actions to go beyond Band-Aids to fix this growing crisis. Central to her proposal, it seems, is the expansion of free school meals to secondary schools. She emphasized the benefits seen from the initial rollout in primary schools, stating, “We have seen real benefits from the rollout in primary schools, and it’s taken away stigma, and that is a huge aspect of child poverty that we can’t ignore.”
Thanks to passionate advocates like Ms. Cifuentes, efforts to push for more free school meals are growing stronger. She’s making it a priority to expand access to Welsh benefits to families who qualify. She believes that simplifying this process can significantly alleviate financial stress for many households.
Ms. Cifuentes calls for the elimination of fares on public transit for minors. This change would be a big step toward removing other barriers for low-income families.
Finally, the Scottish government has announced a new, one-off, child benefit supplement focusing on the lowest income families. This initiative has received support from Plaid Cymru. This new initiative raises questions about the broader national debate on what to do for the UK’s most vulnerable families.
UK Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has recently called for an end to the controversial two-child benefit cap. This policy has generated national controversy and ignited the interest of some key political leaders. The First Minister of Wales is one of many calling on the UK government to reverse course on this issue.
Bridget Phillipson has signaled that the UK government may soon lift the two-child benefit cap, a potential move that could provide additional financial relief to struggling families.
Ms. Cifuentes articulated her increasing alarm about child poverty in her remarks she made on the BBC Politics Wales program on Sunday.
“The evidence is showing us that not only do one in three children remain in poverty, and that has been a consistent figure over the past 20 years, but also a growing proportion of children are experiencing a very deep poverty which means they are so far from the acceptable minimum standards of living that their day-to-day lives are extremely constrained.” – Ms. Cifuentes
