Wiping Out Child Poverty

23 Oct 2008

Hackney Gazette

In the past weeks there has been much talk of the credit crunch, the economic down-turn and what we can do to stabilise the economy. Amidst the big question of what we can do to rescue our economy, there is the very serious problem of poverty in London. Specifically, a new project launched this week is aiming to highlight the child poverty problem in London.

Like most large cities, London has always been a city of inequalities. The wealth of the City lies side-by-side with unemployment. And the level of child poverty in London is one of the highest in the UK. Child poverty is high in the capital because of the high living costs – transport, housing, childcare. London also has a concentrated level of people who are more likely to be living in poverty generally – single parents, black and ethnic minority communities, people living in social housing. Finally, there is a lack of part-time and flexible jobs in London making it harder for parents to find work.

Unfortunately Hackney is one of the worst affected areas in London. We have a high level of children living in poverty, or on the brink of poverty, and this level has not changed much over the past decades. Families in Hackney are struggling with the rising cost of food, fuel and housing.

The good news is that the Labour Government has made a huge commitment to alleviating child poverty. Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised recently that he is planning to enshrine Labour’s original pledge to eradicate child poverty in law. Thanks to measures like an increase in child benefits, tax credits, the minimum wage, Children’s Centres, the right to free pre-school places and more money for education, 600,000 children have been removed from poverty since Labour came into power. And there are bigger and better improvements on the way. Areas like Hackney are set to get more staff for their Children’s Centres, more nursery places for 2 year olds, more free childcare to help parents who are working or training and more supervised playgrounds for our children. In addition, families will gain from higher rates of child benefits (up to £1,000 by 2010) a cut in basic rate income tax and extended paid maternity leave. In fact by 2010, the poorest households will be about £4,500 better off than they were in 1997.

I am proud of the changes Labour have made and of the commitment to further improvements in the future. But I also realise that in places like Hackney there is a lot of work to be done to improve the lives of thousands of children. It is unacceptable that in the sixth richest capital in the world, over 650,000 children are still living in poverty. That is why I am supporting the End Child Poverty group’s project 4 in 10. 4 in 10: The End Child Poverty London Project is a two-year project that aims to raise awareness of child poverty in London and support groups and schemes that are having a positive impact on alleviating poverty. Groups working with children and families will be able to join together to share ideas and best practice and the project will support them in their work.

There are hundreds of groups in Hackney that are improving the lives of our children. There are 19 Children’s Centres throughout the borough that are doing some brilliant work in supporting families. I think it is a great idea to bring all this good work together and improve and expand on what is taking place. It will be of great benefit to the people of Hackney to have a clear focus on what we need to do to alleviate child poverty. Having a clear focus makes it much easier to go to the Government with demands and hold them to account over their policies and promises. I am greatly looking forward to being involved in the 4 in 10 Project and helping to represent the needs of Hackney children in Parliament. The 4 in 10 Project is a positive initiative we can all get behind and tackle the specific problem of child poverty in Hackney.

Any organisations interested in taking part in the 4 in 10 Project should contact Liz Thorne at liz@ecpc.org.uk or on 020 7278 3404.



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