To be sad about these latest UK figures of child poverty?

[Mamasaurus82]

"The number of children growing up in poverty in working households has increased by 800,000 since 2010, a new study suggests.
The TUC said its analysis indicated that child poverty in working families rose to 2.9 million cases last year, an increase of 38 per cent since the start of the decade."
How can this be allowed to happen?

Lets not forget the letter Labour left for the new government

NO MONEY LEFT

www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/17/liam-byrne-note-successor

Not forgetting the parents that choose to spend whatever little cash they do have on alcohol and cigarettes rather than feeding and clothing their children. Sadly that is common round my doors.

Whichever way you look at it there is no political party that has the answer.

However the figures are calculated (and whatever the actual figure is), its hard to deny what is happening and its impact:

• wage increases have not aligned with the cost of living

• there is a housing crisis. Many parts of the country have a huge disparity between average wages and the cost of housing. There is insufficient control or regulation of rents or private landlords.

• employment has become less secure with the rise of the gig economy and zero hours contracts, changes in employment legislation and legal aid (making it harder for employees to challenge employers)

• benefits cuts and sanctions have been implemented

• council budgets have been cut. Many services that the poorest would previously have relied on are no longer available (including support in finding work)

• Food bank use has increased

There's no point pretending its all ok because the figure is a few hundred thousand out.

"I am a high earner, but technically I am in absolute poverty by this definition."

yes, it's very confusing.

I didn't realise that dishwasher was used as an indicator in the 1980s. In that case, most of the people I knew grew up in poverty.

the last JRF report I looked at wanted to allocate an amount of money, per person, for leisure etc, that I've never had and I didn't get it really.