Below the Breadline: The Increase of Poverty Throughout the UK

The increased cost-of-living has had a disproportionate increase in the poverty levels of children with now nearly half of families being in poverty. 

Among the reasons behind the increase in the two-child benefit cap which took affect at the beginning of the 2017/18 Financial Year - the cap restricts benefits such as Child Tax Credits and Universal Credit to the first two children. 

Campaigners such as End Child Poverty coalition manager Rachel Walters have argued for the scrapping of the two child poverty in which the coalition sent an unhappy birthday card to the DWP in April, calling it: “A calculated decision that has pushed costs onto the poorest and led millions into destitution.”

She also mentioned a lot of impoverished children suffer extreme mental health problems when dealing with poverty, mentioning one young person had informed her that the young person and her brother would spend the entirety of their summer holidays watching TV as their mother had to continue working so missing out on doing other things that their peers would experience. 

Walters said: “They didn’t have money for a holiday or to even go to a theme park so sitting on the sofa and watching TV was their summer holidays. 

“Going into their first English lesson, they had to write what they had done on their holidays and they just made something up. 

“It creates trauma for feeling different to their peers and missing out on these experiences and it is sad.” 

She also explained that university becomes unattainable for impoverioshed children because of the additional costs that come with university. 

"There is that inner-built belief that young people that have a family to pull back on and that is not the case.

"You are limiting a person's ability to phase themselves out of poverty."

The Vagrancy Act of 1824 is the key act that outlaws rough sleeping and begging within England and Wales. 

Section 4 of the revised act is the key section of the act that outlaws rough sleeping in regard to certain conditions. 

Earlier this year, there was the proposed introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill which would enable an authorized person to move on an individual if they are considered a nuisance beggar.

The Bill hadn't gone through Parliament when the election was called but the Conservatives have pledged to introduce a version of the Criminal Justice Bill if they win the election.

Critics of the bill saw this as a possibility that it would criminalize rough sleeping which the government denied saying that the bill would tackle root causes of poverty. 

The two-child benefit cap prevents parents claiming tax credits or universal credit for any third or subsequent child born after April 5th 2017.

A report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies estimated that an additional 250,000 children will be impacted by the policy over the next year.

Critics of the policy believe that 300,000 children would be lifted out of poverty if the cap was removed. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby and Former Home Secretary Suella Braverman are all opponents of the policy.

The policy was introduced by George Osbourne back in the post 2015 General Election Budget with the aim that families on means-tested benefits faced the same financial choices as those supporting themselves solely through work.

Below is what End Child Poverty Coalition's Rachel Walters had to say on the policy.