Government action is demanded ‘to tackle shocking levels of child poverty in Oldham’

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams and Oldham Council leader Councillor Arooj Shah have both called for immediate Government action to tackle 'shocking' levels of child poverty in the town.

27,760 children lived in poverty in Oldham in 2022, according to a recent report by the End Child Poverty Campaign.

This is 43.6% of Oldham’s children, while the town has the sixth highest child poverty level of all UK local authorities.

The position is worst in the Oldham West and Royton constituency, which has the fourth highest level of the UK’s Parliamentary constituencies.

The report also shows that living in a working family is not necessarily a route out of poverty.

7,079 (64%) of children living in poverty in Oldham East and Saddleworth are in working families and 9,485 in Oldham West and Royton (68%).

The End Child Poverty campaign concludes that the two child limit on benefits has the strongest positive association with child poverty.

Across the UK, 42% of families with three or more children live in poverty, compared with 23% of one child families and 22% of two child families.

This is supported by work led by the Child Poverty Action Group, which concluded that abolition of the two child limit would lift 250,000 children out of poverty across the UK and improve the position for a further 850,000.

Councillor Shah said: "The Government must take immediate action to tackle shocking levels of child poverty in Oldham and across the UK.

"Child poverty in Oldham went up by 3% in 2021/22 and this is before we felt the worst impact of the cost of living crisis since these figures were published.

"Tory Government policies are making matters worse for too many Oldham families and abolishing the two-child benefits limit would give some immediate help to people in most need.

"The Labour Party will reform the benefits system which keeps children in poverty, but until a General Election, it’s the Tories who need to sort out the mess they made introducing the two child limit in the first place."

As a member of the Department for Work and Pensions Select Committee, MP Ms Abrahams (above) has been pushing for and improving our social security safety net for Oldham and beyond, including an end to the benefit cap and two-child limit on social security payments. 

Responding to the new figures, she added: "These statistics, which show nearly one in two children are having their childhoods blighted by poverty, are a damning indictment of the failures of this Conservative Government that has overseen 13 years of cuts to social security, including the imposition of a two child limit.

“No child should grow up hungry.

"For a Conservative Government that talks about aspiration, tackling child poverty should be a key priority but having abolished the Child Poverty Act, they don’t seem to care.

“Families in Oldham are no less aspirational than those in leafy suburbs.

"But we need a Government that wants to unleash our potential, rather than neglecting us."

---

Do you have a story for us? Want to tell us about something going on in and around Oldham? Let us know by emailing news@oldham-chronicle.co.uk , calling our Oldham-based newsroom on 0161 633 2121 , tweeting us @oldhamchronicle or messaging us through our Facebook page. All contact will be treated in confidence.