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Family Support and Family Hubs: Key policy developments

7 mins read Children's Services
Poverty is a key driver for both problems arising and the need for support in families, whether that is because of changing personal circumstances such as the loss of work, ill health or divorce, or the impact of benefit changes and rising inflation eating into household income.
Data from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests 4.2 million children were living in poverty in 2021/22. Picture: Adobe Stock
Data from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests 4.2 million children were living in poverty in 2021/22. Picture: Adobe Stock

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundations (JRF) latest report analysing the scale of poverty in the UK, 22% of the population – 14.4 million people – were living in poverty in 2021/22. Most were adults of working age but 4.2 million were children. The analysis shows that four in 10 of the poorest families are in deep poverty – where they had an average income that was 59% below the poverty line, with this gap increasing by two-thirds over the past 25 years.

The JRF also found that families with three or more children have higher rates of poverty - 43% of children in large families were in poverty in 2021/22 - because several benefit policies have a disproportionate impact on them. These include the two-child limit, which restricts eligibility for many child-related benefits to the first two children in a household, and the benefit cap, which limits the total income a household can receive in out-of-work benefits.

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