Child Poverty

As mentioned by Ruane and Cerulo in Second Thoughts, harsh realities of poverty affect children’s lives in profound ways. Children lack any power in improving their circumstances and depend on adults to gain access to basic necessities. Access to proper healthcare, education, and basic nutrition continues to be an obstacle for children. Poverty impedes children’s aptitude to learn and contributes to poor overall health and mental health. Perhaps most important, poverty becomes a cyclical nature that is difficult to overcome. Children who experience poverty when they are young tend to experience persistent poverty over the course of their entire lives. According to the Child Welfare League of America, the national poverty rate for children

Child welfare services in the UK are funded by the ‘child benefit’ programme. Child benefit has been integral to the income of families throughout the UK for more than three decades now and it still prioritises poor children in the benefits and tax system. A universal child benefit programme assists in the redistribution of resources from taxation (Lewis, 2008, p. 126). Child benefit supplanted a tax allowance programme for parents, but was changed into a payment scheme due to the fact that tax allowances mostly give advantage to primary earners (Farthing, 2012, p. 4-5). Child benefit is given to the primary caregiver, generally mothers.

Poverty can result in unemployment, parental separation, illness or disability, addictions, or criminal activities. Children may suffer malnutrition or a poor diet as a result of their parents being unable to afford quality food. This could result in lack of concentration or poor performance at school.

For the purpose of this essay I am going to be discussing how social policy and legislation with regards to poverty in the UK has evolved and the effect it has had on children and their families. There are 3.5 million children living in poverty in the UK today, 27 per cent of children (Department for Work and Pensions, 2013). According to Mayer (1997), poor homes tend to have overcrowding, lack electrical outlets and less likely to have central heating. The level of cognitive stimulation is another element, which can be affected by lack of financial resources and poverty (Guo & Harris, 2000). This essay will now focus on five key acts these are; the poor law, National assistance act, the Sure Start programme, the child poverty act

The government was enforced to put actions into place after the child poverty act 2010 put in place targets to eradicate child poverty by 2020. The government’s aim to do this has not gone unseen as the government initiatives has had some positive impact on families. (Fauth, 2013)

From doing some research on my chosen topic of poverty, I have learned many things that will help me with my work towards children in the future. Theorist such a Maslow and also The Foundation Phase have both more knowledge on children. From understanding both Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and The Foundation Phase I will be able to provide better opportunities for children in the future. Both of these theorist answered many of my questions which were raised. From doing some independent learning into how poverty affects children in both their education, their social development, their health and more, I came to understand that the Welsh government are doing many things to help provide for the children within their schools. Many services have been

The costs of child poverty affects children in the form of ill health and high mortality, lowered educational and employment opportunities, increased criminal and violence behaviours and much more. Child poverty not only harms the individual child, but also afflicted the society as a whole with both social and economic costs (Craig, 2013). Boston (2013) also suggested that a nation’s prosperity is reduced with substantial rates of child poverty based on empirical evidence. Children are the future of New Zealand’s society, and they need to be well nourished, housed and educated to contribute to a functioning and thriving society.

This report will focus on contemporary poverty in the UK although poverty is different globally, it will look at childhood in general and show the effect that poverty has on the experiences of childhood. The report will define poverty and use statistics and government policy on poverty. Three sources will be analysed, for the academic my main source is on the book of Ridge (2002) which is Childhood Poverty and Social Exclusion from a Childs perspective, next for media source it is a documentary called Poor Kids and my case study is on a lone parent family. Townsend who was a sociologist in (1979) defined poverty he said

Homelessness, overcrowding or poor conditions of houses can have a severe effect on children. Eventually, it leads to child poverty. Moreover, it argued that the Government will not meet its target to end child poverty unless the plight of hundreds of thousands of children living in bad housing is tackled. In the briefing, Graeme Brown, Development Director at End Child Poverty, said that 3.9 million children are experiencing the misery of poverty. So if the Government is serious about ending child poverty, they must tackle housing and give children the chance they deserve to grow up in a decent home. Therefore, poor housing affects children’s condition in society and it creates the situation of child poverty to some extent.

Homelessness, overcrowding or poor conditions of houses can have a severe effect on children. Eventually it leads to child poverty. Moreover, it argued that the Government will not meet its target to end child poverty unless the plight of hundreds of thousands of children living in bad housing is tackled. In the briefing, Graeme Brown, Development Director at End Child Poverty, said that 3.9 million children are experiencing the misery of poverty. So ff the Government is serious about ending child poverty, they must tackle housing and give children the chance they deserve to grow up in a decent home. Therefore, poor housing effects children’s condition in society and it creates the situation of child poverty to some extent.

Not many people realize that child poverty is a significant social problem in today’s world. Children are the future of society, so they need to be fully developed to continue with what has already

Children whose parents are having uneven income do not get decent nourishment as well as education. It is well documented that children of such families are also more likely to have adverse outcomes in other phases of their life. This contains low educational achievement, poor physical and mental health, and susceptibility to take up substance abuse and crime. On the other hand, there are currently several government policies meant to address the social impacts of child poverty, for example the Children’s Action Plan which aims to improve outcomes for vulnerable children and the Better Public Service

In poverty stricken areas, it is most common to blame the parents of the family. What most people usually do not notice is how the children of this situation are affected. “There are 30 million children - across 35 countries with developed economies - living in poverty” (Healey 9). This number is not counting the number of children who are living in absolute poverty in undeveloped countries. “A study concluded that over one billion children – more than half the children in developing countries – suffer from at least one form of severe deprivation” (“Children Living…” 1). These children’s well-being is at stake and most people are completely unaware as to what is going on. According to Eric Jensen, author of Teaching With Poverty in Mind, students under three years of age need four specific commodities to grow up

Steadily, the UK’s poverty rate began to decline and is currently resting at 22%. London is the richest part of Britain and it is often referred to as the engine of the national economy. On the other hand, it also has the highest poverty rate. One of the biggest issues that the UK faces is child poverty. There are currently 3.6 million children living in poverty, an environment that could be detrimental their education.

Outline the characteristics and circumstances of children living in poverty in the UK and discuss the impact of poverty on their wellbeing.