Child Poverty Unit must address dispoportionate costs of disabled households

2 mins read

Tuesday 30 July 2024

Tags: benefits, universal credit, money, carer's allowance, cost of living, child poverty unit, child poverty

The government has recently announced that it will form a new Child Poverty Unit to address rising numbers of children living in poverty and low-income households.

The new unit will bring together government officials and external experts to create a strategy for reducing child poverty.

The Education Secretary Briget Phillipson MP and Work & Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall MP will lead the unit.

Our Head of Policy Una Summerson says:

“The creation of a Child Poverty Unit is welcome. But it must look at the disproportional impact poverty and extra costs has on disabled children and their families.

“Our research has found that a third of families with disabled children have extra disability costs of over £300 per month. Disabled households are often limited in their opportunities for work due to caring responsibilities. And essentials like food and energy often cost more, due to specialist diets and life-saving machinary needed 24/7.

“In the last year, Contact’s family finances team increased household incomes on average by £5,918 per eligible family. We urge families with disabled children to seek out our support to make sure they are not missing out.”

Simple fixes to reduce child poverty

Earlier this year, we set our roadmap for the new government, including measures to reduce child poverty.  There are some simple fixes to Universal Credit that would make an immediate difference to the incomes of some of the most disabled young people in education, hospital and those with looked-after status.  

We would like to see reforms to Carer’s Allowance (such as lifting the earnings limit). And the government could release £210 million of savings currently locked away from 80,000 disabled young people in Child Trust Funds. These measured would have a big impact on reducing child poverty.