Charities have urged the Government to ‘overhaul’ the benefits system to tackle child poverty, after a report found the system to be a major cause of mental illness.
The report, ‘A dual crisis,’ by the Centre for Mental Health, Save the Children UK and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition warned that the UK benefits system ‘cast a shadow’ over young people’s wellbeing. It found that the number of children living in poverty had increased to 4.3 million, while one in five children had a diagnosable mental health problem.
Priya Edwards, policy and advocacy adviser at Save the Children UK, said that poverty leads to ‘dreadful outcomes’ for young people that impact them for the rest of their life.
‘Immediate action the UK government should take would be to support the most vulnerable families by introducing a child lock. This would lock social security entitlements each year by average earnings or inflation, whichever of the two is higher. Parents would get greater financial stability, easing the stress and anxiety of financial hardship for the entire family.’
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The charities found that some children are ‘overexposed’ to the dual risks of poverty and poor mental health, with rates of poverty twice as high among Asian and Black families than for white families. They said this higher risk of poverty exacerbates the impacts of racism and discrimination on children’s mental health.
The report has called for the Government to reform the benefits system to reduce child poverty, introduce mental health support teams across every school in England and expand free school meals provision to all children in households in receipt of universal credit.
This report comes as Keir Starmer faces increased pressure to scrap the two-child benefit limit, which research reveals would lift 250,000 children out of poverty.
A government spokesperson said: ‘This government is committed to tackling child poverty, which is why the new ministerial taskforce launched last week will look at all the available levers across government as we begin this urgent work. We will also provide access to specialist mental health professionals in every school so young people can get the support and care they deserve.’