Cost of Child Poverty “Colossal”
According to an new report by David Hirsch of Loughborough University’s Centre for Social Policy, the estimated minimum cost of child poverty in the UK today stands at £29bn £4bn higher than in 2008 when the last calculations were carried out.
These costs are set to rise – the Joseph Rowntree Foundation predicts that the number of children living in poverty will increase to 3.4m by 2020, a rise of 700,000. This could cost the UK an estimated £35bn in today’s terms unless action is taken to reverse the upward trend.
As a consequence of child poverty it is estimated that in 2013:
- £15bn will be spent on extra services
- £2.4bn will be spent on benefits for adults who grew up in poverty
- £3.5bn will be lost from potential tax receipts from adults who grew up in poverty
- £8.5bn of potential post-tax income for adults who have grown up in poverty will be lost.
The report ends by stating that: “The prospect of facing this colossal bill for allowing child poverty to return to around its high point last seen in the late 1990s is a powerful incentive to devote resources instead to fulfilling the commitment, enshrined in the Child Poverty Act 2010, of its eradication.”
Source: Child Poverty Action Group