Millions of children 'face poverty'

12:38pm Tuesday 30th September 2008

Millions of children are being "failed by the system" and living in or on the brink of poverty, it has been claimed.

Research by the Campaign to End Child Poverty found that in 174 of the 646 parliamentary constituencies across the UK, more than half the children live in poverty or are in families struggling on low incomes.

Pockets of the UK were in "turmoil" and millions more children than previously thought were being left behind, the campaign said.

Of the 13,233,320 children in the UK, 5,559,000 - more than a third - live in low-income families or families in poverty.

The research was compiled from Government statistics and also includes the numbers of children in families on Working Families Tax Credit.

Some 22% of children, or 2,895,000, are in families claiming the tax credit while 22% or 2,664,000 live in workless families.

In individual constituencies, Birmingham Ladywood came top with 81% or 28,420 children coming under the two classifications. The area is represented by former Labour and now independent MP Clare Short.

Within Ladywood, the ward of Aston has 87% of youngsters struggling to get by, the campaign said.

In his Labour Party Conference speech, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to enshrine in law the Government's ambitious target to end child poverty in the next 12 years.

He used his speech to the Labour conference to announce plans for "ground-breaking legislation" to end child poverty by 2020. It has been predicted that the government is in danger of missing its target of halving child poverty by 2010. The plan was announced by Tony Blair in 1999.