Without a doubt, child poverty figures in Salford and the rest of the UK are very concerning. This year, 333,000 children in Greater Manchester and Lancashire are without food, enough clothes and sometimes shelter.
The figures have increased by 31,197 compared with the previous year. This is particularly concerning for Salford as around 30 per cent of children in the city in 2024 are living below the poverty line according to researchers at Loughborough University.
Salford’s Labour MP Rebecca Long-Bailey released a desperate plea earlier this month for the Government to end child poverty immediately.
In the plea, Ms Long-Bailey also called on the Labour Government to scrap the two-child limit as she called it “cruel” and “ineffective”.
The Salford MP has now been suspended for her stance on the benefit limit for six months. Rebecca and six other MPs voted in favour of the Scottish National Party-led amendment calling for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.
Ms Long-Bailey said: “This is something many struggling families have raised with me but it’s also something that every child poverty expert has called for. Scrapping the two-child limit would lift hundreds of thousands of children across the country out of poverty.”
The MP said she was “deeply saddened” to have the whip suspended for six months.
“As a strict matter of conscience, on this occasion I felt I must speak for my constituents who have no voice in the hope that the Government urgently helps them on this issue,” she said.
“I will continue to work with the Government and colleagues to help the constituents I represent.”
Ms Long-Bailey highlighted that poverty in Salford is particularly rife and referenced the popular folk song based on Salford, ‘Dirty Old Town’ by Ewan MacColl.
Ms Long-Bailey said: “As I listened to that song, full of hope for the future about how lives could be improved in Salford under a new Labour Government, I wondered what Ewan would make of Salford now.
“Of course the slums and chimneys are long gone; replaced by new council housing estates in the 1950’s and 60’s, and later from the 1990’s onwards, gleaming docklands emerged, met by almost stratospheric apartment blocks cutting through the skyline and tram networks.
“Even new state of the art eco council homes are being built across the city, largely due to the driving ambition of a Salford Labour council who believes strongly that ‘the welfare of the people is the highest law.’
“Despite the profound changes seen by the city in the last 75 years, the financial struggles of so many families across Salford are relatively no different to those Ewan saw growing up.”
Ms Long-Bailey is not the only one in Salford calling for an urgent end to child poverty. The anti-poverty charity Caritas Salford said the “time for talking is over” in their summer appeal this July.
Patrick O’Dowd, director of the charity, said: “Real young lives are being devastatingly impacted every day as poverty reaches what we think is an all-time high, and we see as demand for our services continues to rise that hardworking families are struggling beyond belief to simply carry on providing basic food, accommodation and clothing for their children.
“This incredibly devastating spiral must be stopped – and it must be stopped now.
“Key decision makers at a local and national level must make this a priority before it’s too late – though I fear that for many it’s already reached that point.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies have determined that (like Salford) 30 per cent of children now live in households in the UK below the official poverty line. This is up 27 per cent when compared to the figures in 2010.
Further, the TUC determined that wage stagnation was a key part of the concerning child poverty figures. They claimed that a “toxic combination” of insecure work and cuts to social security had a devastating impact on household budgets, as the number of children in poverty with at least one parent in work increased by 900,000 between 2010 and 2023.
Downing Street said the state of the public finances did not mean action could not be taken to tackle child poverty.
Sir Keir Starmer is under pressure, including from some of his own MPs, to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “When it comes to that policy, there’s a simple reason that the Government didn’t include in the manifesto, and that is the Government isn’t prepared to make unfunded promises that can’t be kept.”
He added: “The Chancellor has actually set out that the situation facing the public finances is worse than previously thought and that’s why she’ll be providing an update on that in due course.
“But that doesn’t mean we can’t take action to tackle child poverty. And we are developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty and give children the best start in life.”
It’s fair to say that most charities in Salford are working over-time to combat this worrying crisis.
Rachel Howley from Citizens Advice Salford said she has seen an increasing number of residents asking for help. She said the fact that the Household Support Fund is ending in September is putting a lot of pressure and strain of families who are already struggling.
Rachel said: “People are still really struggling and times are still really tough for people. We want to let people know that there is help available.”
To help people in Salford, Citizens Advice has set up a ‘Beat The Crisis’ podcast so that “as many people as possible know what their rights and entitlements are.
“Obviously the cost of living was really predominant in the last couple of years and I think certain people are assuming that we’re over that now and things are getting better for everyone, this is not the case.”
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