News

Britain shamed by child poverty

Even if all parents available for work managed to get jobs, child poverty in the UK would only fall by two-thirds, according to a Unicef report, Child poverty in rich nations.

This is because about half of people living in poverty are in households where parents can’t work – because of sickness, disability or the age of children – or because the minimum wage would still leave them earning too little.

Child poverty can only be addressed through a complex strategy aimed at reducing the number of children in workless households, reducing severe wage inequalities and cutting poverty among lone-parent families, the report concludes. Narrowing the gap between state benefits and the average wage will also be necessary.

The research, which examined data from the 23 OECD nations, found that Sweden, Norway, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Denmark were the top six countries for having low levels of both relative and absolute child poverty.

The UK came a poor 20th for relative child poverty and 14th out of 16 countries for which absolute poverty figures were available.

Sweden and Norway had among the highest numbers of lone parent families and Finland and Belgium among the highest proportions of workless households. But these indicators were compensated for by reduced wage inequalities and state benefit payments near to the average wage, while the UK has wide income inequality.

A league table of child poverty in rich nations: www.unicef-icdc.org