Bradford and Yorkshire children going without essentials, says report

The research by Save the Children claims 30 per cent of youngsters in the region are living on or below the breadline with 131,000 – 12 per cent – forced to go without essentials such as warm clothes and food.

The charity found child poverty across the country increased even before the recession, with an extra 260,000 children plunged into severe poverty during four years of UK economic boom before the recession hit in 2008, taking the UK total to 1.7 million.

Fergus Drake, Save the Children’s director of UK programmes, said: “It’s shocking that at a time when the country was experiencing unprecedented levels of wealth the number of children living in severe poverty – we’re talking about children going without a winter coat, a bed and other day-to-day essentials – actually increased.

“Measures introduced by the Government in the last two years have managed to prevent the numbers spiralling even higher but with unemployment expected to rise there is a danger that severe child poverty will increase even further.”

Figures from HM Revenue and Customs show almost a third (31.4 per cent) of children in Bradford live in poverty, compared to 21.6 per cent nationally.

According to The Campaign to End Child Poverty, 25 per cent of children in the city are from families surviving on out-of-work benefits. Bradford Council is working on a strategy to help banish child poverty in the district and last year approved plans for an officer and leading councillor to co-ordinate efforts.

According to Save the Children, almost half of children living in severe poverty were in single-parent families while the same number were in families claiming jobseekers allowance.

The report also revealed that Pakistani, Bangladeshi and black African children were around three times more likely to be in severe poverty than white children.

But white British children still made up the majority of children living in severe poverty, at more than 70 per cent.