Families to be offered help to leave temporary accommodation under UK child poverty strategy | Children
Families will be offered help to escape temporary accommodation and support with childcare as part of the government’s delayed child poverty strategy. Ministers said the entire package would lift more than half a million children out of poverty.
The new proposals in the strategy, originally planned to be unveiled in the spring, come in addition to removing the two-child limit for some benefits, which would have the biggest impact on poverty during this parliament, at a cost of £3bn.
As part of what Keir Starmer has described as a “moral mission” for his government, the UK-wide strategy will include an £8m investment in a pilot program covering 20 councils where homeless families are particularly prevalent in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation, to ensure they are all moved within six weeks.
Councils will also have a new legal duty to notify schools, GPs and health visitors when a child is placed with family in temporary accommodation. In a parallel policy, ministers will work with the NHS to prevent mothers with newborns being sent back to hostels or other similarly unsuitable accommodation.
Another new element will mean changing the rules to make it easier for working parents who receive universal credit to get help paying for childcare costs up front.
In the budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced the end of nearly a decade of Conservative Party policy to ban universal credit or tax credit payments for children in their third year or beyond, which campaigners say has pushed more than 300,000 more children into poverty.
This week, following questions from the prime minister, Starmer announced another policy: the adoption of recommendations from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which aim to help inform parents about cheaper baby food products from the best-known brands.
Other new poverty-related policies include expanding free school meals in England, funding for more breakfast clubs and a project to create new Sure Start-type family centres.
The combined measures will lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030, according to Downing Street’s statement on the strategy, described as the biggest ever reduction in a single parliament since comparable records began.
Poverty charities have reacted positively to the plan, which was originally planned for the spring but was postponed as Starmer and Reeves grappled with the financial and political fallout of removing the two-child limit.
Katie Schmuecker, of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the government had “put its money behind its manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty” and said removing the two-child limit was “the most effective policy decision” ministers could make to tackle child poverty.
Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo’s, welcomed the plan, adding: “While this is a milestone, we must also remember that despite these significant changes, up to four million children are still set to live in poverty in 2029. We must work together as a society to change this.”
Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said the changes were invaluable but “only a first step”, adding: “There is so much more to do and we must build on this momentum now to achieve more tangible change for children.”
The removal of the two-child limit has long been demanded by many Labor MPs; Starmer was facing increasing pressure from his ministers to act on a policy that the prime minister also disliked but was aware that repealing it carried political risks.
Starmer said in a statement that many families were still “struggling without the basic needs of a safe home, hot meals and the support they need to make ends meet.”
The Prime Minister continued: “I will not stand by while something like this happens because the cost of doing nothing is too high for children, families and Britain.”
“This is, for me, a moral duty. It is about justice, opportunity and unlocking potential. Our strategy is not just about reversing the failures of the past, it sets a new course for national renewal, centering children’s life chances.”
