An estimated 350,000 more children were pulled into poverty last year, largely because the Government cut the £20 universal credit uplift half-way through the year, reveals new analysis of official figures.
CPAG estimates that child poverty costs the UK £39.5 billion a year in lost tax and earnings, unemployment benefit and additional public services spending including £3.1 billion on the Pupil Premium and early years entitlement for disadvantaged two-year-olds. This is up from £25bn in 2008.
Its analysis, put together by Donald Hirsch, director of the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, highlights that since 2021, spending on the Pupil Premium has risen from £2.5 billion to £2.7 billion a year, while spending on funded two-year-old places has fallen from £0.5 billion to £0.4 billion.
The research goes on to warn that based upon forecasts of continued growth in child poverty, the current estimated £39.5bn annual cost will reach £40.4 billion in 2027 (in today’s prices).
