Child Poverty Strategy welcome but no targeted measures to help disabled children
4 mins read
Friday 5 December 2025
Today the government has published its long-awaited Child Poverty Strategy.
Measures included are:
- Scrapping the two-child limit for Universal Credit claimants from April 2026.
- Expansion of free school meals to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit.
- £600 million investment in the Holiday Activity and Food programme in England over the next three years.
- Extension of the Warm Homes Discount to an additional 2.7 million households in Great Britain.
- Increasing the maximum amount of childcare costs that can be reimbursed when more than two children are in childcare.
- Best Start Family Hubs – improving support locally with SEND co-ordinator.
Disabled children particularly vulnerable to living in poverty
Anna Bird, Chief Executive at Contact, said:
“We welcome the government’s commitment to reducing child poverty. We know from our work with families calling our Family Finance helpline, and through extensive research, that families with disabled children are particularly vulnerable to living in poverty due to the extra costs of disability and the difficulty of juggling work and caring.
“Many families face impossible choices every day including whether to heat their home or use electrical care equipment. To fill their food cupboards or fund essential therapies. There is lots to welcome in the government’s strategy, including measures to remove punitive benefit cuts and bolstering help with costs at school and for essentials like heating. But we are disappointed the strategy does not sufficiently recognise disabled children as a distinct priority group.
“We would have liked to see measures to backdate Universal Credit when Disability Living Allowance (DLA) is awarded; an increase in the Disabled Facilities Grant to recognise the increase in building costs; improving access to Child Trust Funds for disabled young people; and improving access to childcare for disabled children by opening special schools in the summer holidays.”
What we support in the Strategy
- Scrapping of the two-child limit for Universal Credit claimants from April 2026. This is a very welcome announcement, which should have a major impact on reducing child poverty within larger families. Research shows that disabled children are likely to live in larger households. However, there are concerns that families on Universal Credit with a transitional element may not see any gains in the short term. This is because the extra child payments they get may be deducted from the transitional protection they currently receive
- Moves to reduce costs for families: The Strategy includes measures to reduce essential costs for example, easier access to childcare for families on Universal Credit, extending Free School Meals and extending Warm Home Discount and support for parents returning from parental leave.
- Support for families in temporary or inadequate housing: The Strategy recognises the harm of families living in temporary accommodation which can have devastating impacts on children’s stability, schooling and wellbeing.
- The metric to measure child poverty and check the success of the strategy will take into account the extra costs of disability. And the strategy does recognise the particular difficulties for disabled parents. Our research shows that almost half of families with disabled children live in a household with an adult with a disability.
Where the Strategy risks failing disabled children
Despite the positives, we are concerned that the Strategy does not sufficiently recognise disabled children as a distinct priority group. Disabled children and their families often face:
- Much higher day-to-day living costs (specialist equipment, therapies, accessible transport, utilities, adaptations) beyond what generic “cost of living” support can cover.
- Additional barriers to work for parent carers (care needs, need for flexible or specialist childcare, medical appointments).
- Greater vulnerability to housing instability, delays in services and the potential proposal to cut health element of Universal Credit for disabled under 22.
