How would you tackle child poverty and improve outcomes?

@Goldenbear I'm probably close to being a theoretical millionaire because I own the house that DS and I live in.

I'm a single mum. I don't have any money, it just means I bought a very ordinary house a long time ago. We live in it. We could sell it but then we'd be homeless.

A new-built shoebox semi in our town costs £900k. I have a budget of £60 a week to feed both of us. We haven't turned the heating on yet. I'm still working full time in my 60s.

Maybe adjust your views of the "rich" to take house prices into account.

I mean, speak for yourself, I'd rather a Labour government than a extreme right wing one!

Er yes, I live in the south east and fall in that bracket. I'm referring to multi millionaires not people with an asset of a million pound house although depending on your age i.e. not a windfall, you are categorically wealthy at those prices.

It’s interesting to see so many posts on here (typically a more left leaning site) about people taking responsibility, welfare dependence being a problem etc.

this should be a wake up for Labour - the people funding everything through their taxes are fed up. Working people don’t get a pay rise when they have another kid. In a country with free contraception and more or less abortion on demand there is no reason to have kids you can’t afford or care for.

And school holidays, sick pay and amazing pension vs working in a supermarket

You do realise that a 3 bed semi in the SE of England can cost nearly a million? Being a millionaire and being a house-owner in these areas is often the same thing. It does not mean people have an income anywhere near 100k, or are particularly cash-rich.

I speak as someone who’s always worked in the public sector and never earned anywhere even approaching that sum.

We need children to continue a functioning society both economically and physically. Quite apart from the biological desire to have them - in some cases which is not abnormal or strange for goodness sake!

I am not just talking about men.

What do you suggest we do about it? Sew up their private parts?

It is you who is disillusioned or disingenuous who knows. In the last 40 years the number of multi-millionaires in the UK has risen exponentially! Forty years ago there were fewer than 100,000 millionaires in the UK and the number of people with wealth above £5 million was miniscule. In 2024 that figure had risen to approximately 3 million millionaires. Even with this 'exodus' the absolute number is still vastly higher than it was 40 years ago, this is why we see such huge wealth inequality, the richest 1 % of the UK hold 70% of the wealth. we are not discussing middle/working class people on £100000 as well you probably know!

No one has the right to have a child. Being a parent is not a right. Being a parent is a privilege and if you can't financially afford that privilege then you don't get to have children.

And yes, yes I know that in certain circumstances, the financial lives of some parents can change overnight etc. But that doesn't mean that we should allow millions of other parents to still blithely go ahead and have children that the State then has to financially support.

Yeah back at you 🫤

@harriet9955,I would agree that government should build more council houses but they don't do they. I don't stop them building them. I don't make or force tenants to rent any of my 12 houses. In fact I've got a waiting list for people wanting to rent them. That's because I'm a good landlord who organised any repairs and maintenance quickly and replaces broken white goods often the next day. I'm simply providing a service where there is a need for one. Do you think garages that lease cars and have hundreds to lease are greedy too? Or shops that sell lots of food like Tesco are greedy too? Or, is it just Landlords you hate so much? I'm not stopping anyone buying their own house or forcing anyone to let from me.

While I don’t disagree with you, looking at the educational standard of some people coming out of universities I would question whether it’s been a good use of anyone’s time or money in some instances.

It's ina country interests to have an educated population, it benefits society, we don't need to reduce the intellectual capacity of society even further.

Spot on.

Men refusing to work and support their families and multiple DCs by different women.

Well you would say that with your eleven ( or has it gone higher ) BTL properties wouldn't you ? The poster was saying that more council properties should be built to keep greedy people like you away.

I agree to get children out of poverty you have to get the things directly to the children.

So yes free breakfast club, free school lunch and then after school with dinner / youth groups with food.

You could mix youth group with teaching them how to cook basic cheap food.

That way every child has access to three meals a day Monday-Friday. Youth group could still run Saturday and Sunday.

It could also be a discreet way to get clothes to children who are clearly in a need. Which are given via funding / donations. Someone comes in with holey shoes or a coat two sizes too small and quick check out the back/message to the place and something is sorted.

But this the has to be open to every single child even if their parent is a millionaire because you need to stigma.

During holidays you still run youth club and have basic food parcels no cash delivered opt in/out.

I know Amazon where delivering on behalf of someone as saw it popping up on the local facebook page various people where getting boxes delivered weekly with cereal/bagels/beans/uht milk/soups and all sorts of other long ish life foods.

Though this all costs money, but then again I’m sure people would rather taxes rise to provide this for all children than rise so Debbie with 6 kids and 5 baby daddies gets an extra couple hounded personally each month so smoke and drink up the wall.

That's a starting wage for a newly-qualified teacher.
It does not stay at that level, obviously.

Tbf I understand that no child deserves to be born into poverty. Like a child especially young kids can't be expected to "lift themselves up". They need food, housing and a loving family whilst they go to school.

I think there's a big refocus on education is needed. Too often in UK society it's seen as fine as not being academic or good at school and failing maths and English is seen as okay.

If they have nothing to their name they would have nothing to take. If all 2/3 of men who don't pay maintenance were on benefits, we would know about it. They aren't, mostly its MC men going self employed and the mum can't work due to childcare issues.

I would devolve power away from Westminster have a decentralised government like in Denmark where the municipalities deliver day-to-day public services. If you have decision-making, budgets, and delivery responsibility at a regional level they can be targeted, anti‑poverty solutions. This speeds up responses and enables services that match the needs of the region. How many times do you read on here that someone in the South East doesn't have a clue about problems in a region of the North and visa versa because some issues vary hugely e.g. schools and housing.

The changes you suggest will massively benefit children of course but they won’t tackle to route of the poverty. Certainly not for this generation.

For real change though we need to stop being so judgemental and actually listen to people living through it about what can be done to break the cycles. We need to provide more support for families, we need to ensure children leave school being able to budget and prepare simple meals - and we need to help parents to do be able to do those things.

we need to get to the root cause and make changes that reflect the needs of the communities.