A strong benefits system is the sign of a healthy society – and essential to ending child poverty

Currently, 4.3 million children – three in 10 – are growing up in poverty in the UK in what is the sixth-largest economy in the world, an increase of more than 100,000 children compared to the previous year. This is a blight on our society.

For children and their families this can mean using food banks to provide meals, turning up to school with no winter coat or suitable shoes, or living in cold and unsuitable homes.

Which is why we warmly welcome the government’s commitment to tackling child poverty through a child poverty strategy to be published in spring 2025. We know how much work is needed, but we are confident that with the right action, the government can ensure that no UK child grows up in poverty. The 120 member organisations of the End Child Poverty Coalition have come together and identified eight tests that will show whether the child poverty strategy has put us on the right path to ending child poverty for good.

Our eight tests can act as a guide for the government to show us it really has children’s best interests at the heart. We know what policy levers to pull, now we require leaders with the courage to pull them.

To develop such a strategy, the views of children, young people and families with first-hand experience of living in poverty must be central to the development and implementation of this. Their input is essential to a successful strategy, as only they can advise best on what works for them and what doesn’t. Our coalition expects to see this explicitly set out in the strategy.

As part of this strategy, we are calling on the government to scrap the two-child limit to benefit payments, a policy which drives families into poverty, doing so would lift 300,000 children out of poverty immediately. We don’t say only two children in a family can go to school, or that the third sibling cannot receive hospital treatment, so why do we limit benefit payments to only two children?

We also need a new Child Poverty Act. The government must set legally binding targets for reducing child poverty, which will build clear milestones over the next two decades so that, in 20 years, no child will have to grow up in poverty.

Research shows poverty is linked to other systemic inequalities such as racism, affecting marginalised groups disproportionately. It can also have life-long consequences, such as poorer health outcomes for adults who experienced poverty as children.

For this reason, we want the government to adopt an intersectional perspective when tackling child poverty. Its action must offer specific support for children and families most likely to experience poverty – including disabled children, children from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, children in single parent families and larger families, and refugee and migrant children.

It must also acknowledge that high quality public services are the foundation necessary for many families to escape poverty: healthcare, childcare, education, social housing, transport, employment support are all essential parts of a healthy society. The strategy will need to set out how the government will resource and reform these services to address child poverty.

But we cannot ignore that along with these essential services, social security must be the bedrock of society. Recent years have seen the social security system attacked by funding cuts on one side and harmful rhetoric on the other, portraying it as a failure rather than a life-saving safety net. Let me be clear here: a strong social security system is the sign of a healthy society where everyone’s basic needs are met and respected.

We also want the government to scrap the “no recourse to public funds” (NRPF) rule, which prevents too many migrant families from accessing support for their children – even when these are British nationals.

Ultimately, our overriding test for the strategy is the actual outcomes it achieves. As a coalition, we will do all we can to advise and challenge this government and its strategy, and we will continue to work so that no child needs to grow up in poverty ever again. This is the type of country we must aspire to be.

Joseph Howes is chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition and CEO of Buttle UK.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. This Christmas, you can make a lasting change on a vendor’s life. Buy a magazine from your local vendor in the street every week. If you can’t reach them, buy a Vendor Support Kit.

Big Issue is demanding an end to extreme poverty. Will you ask your MP to join us?