Oldham Labour calls for immediate Government action ‘to tackle shocking levels of child poverty in Oldham’
27,760 children lived in poverty in Oldham in 2022, according to a recent report by the End Child Poverty Campaign.
This is 43.6% of Oldham’s children and Oldham has the 6th highest child poverty level of all UK local authorities. The position is worst in the Oldham West and Royton constituency which has the fourth highest level of the UK’s Parliamentary constituencies.
The report also shows that living in a working family is no route out of poverty. 7,079 (64%) of children living in poverty in Oldham East and Saddleworth are in working families and 9,485 in Oldham West and Royton (68%).
The End Child Poverty campaign concludes that the two child limit on benefits has the strongest positive association with child poverty.
Across the UK 42% of families with 3 or more children live in poverty compared with 23% of one child families and 22% of two child families. This is supported by work led by the Child Poverty Action Group which concluded that abolition of the two child limit would lift 250,000 children out of poverty across the UK and improve the position for a further 850,000.
Councillor Arooj Shah, Leader of the Council said ‘The Government must take immediate action to tackle shocking levels of child poverty in Oldham and across the UK. Child poverty in Oldham went up by 3% in 2021/22 and this is before we felt the worst impact of the cost of living crisis since these figures were published. Tory Government policies are making matters worse for too many Oldham families and abolishing the two-child benefits limit would give some immediate help to people in most need. The Labour Party will reform the benefits system which keeps children in poverty but until a General Election, it’s the Tories who need to sort out the mess they made introducing the two child limit in the first place.’
