How would you tackle child poverty and improve outcomes?

[Cindyyyy]

I would back:

• free basic school meals for all from 3 (extras can be paid for) of healthy, veg-based, minimally-processed meals
• investment into school-based pre-school, to be free for all from age 3
• increase school funding massively, pay rises for teachers and nursery staff, investment and subsidies into training
• increase number of SEN schools and in-school SEN provision, as well as PRUs
• subsidised holiday clubs for all parents working full time
• extend SureStart, increase reviews by health visitors. If a child isn’t meeting milestones, earlier intervention and increased checks
• expand apprenticeships

You?

Ban private landlords. Make all the rented housing council only and have lots of it so as to prevent overcrowding and get children out of HMO's. People would still be able to own and purchase their own homes.

I don’t think the government could ever afford this, but I’d ban Right to Buy immediately and enforce five-year reviews of all council and housing association tenancies.

People should be housed according to need, or paying market rates.

Slash welfare to encourage people to work for a living and improve their own lives, rather than generations languishing on benefits.

This would increase poverty and many children would subsequently suffer.

If all children are entitled to be at school for free from 3, and fed there, including during holidays and wraparound care, parents would have 30-40hrs a week to earn an income.

If they refuse to work or to provide for their children, they’re not fit to be parents.

What?? I'll never own a house, but i also don't need cheaper rent of a house owned by the state. I'm happy with my private landlord situations and get freedom of choice of houses and areas.

I'd just be taking up a cheaper council house i don't need that someone else could be in!

Increase and enforce maintenance payments.

I’d make 50/50 the expectation in the case of a split. If children have free wraparound and school holiday care, there’s far fewer excuses for abandoning children.

If you have children and you split, both households will be worse off because both need to separately provide for their children. That should be anticipated and obvious, not that one parent will be paid for by the state instead.

I might have known someone would push the blame on to private Landlords. There is not enough council housing to accommodate the people already in this country, but we have hundreds coming across the channel most days.

I don’t have a stake in the game on private landlords but I know it’s far less profitable than it was even five or ten years ago.

I do think there needs to be an increase in building council properties though, but cheap to run blocks of flats, not sprawling executive housing estates with five bedrooms and big gardens. Council housing should be for those in need of housing.

Ensure that the 30-40 hours a week are actually paid at a rate people can do more than barely survive on, and not needing top ups while businesses expand and make profits, because the tax payer fills the gap.

I mean removing or reducing benefits is a great way to force people into the low paid roles we all use and want while businesses carry on as they are without it affecting their bottom line.

And while I'm at it government funded things shouldn't be profit making opportunities. Care homes, healthcare, housing should all have what they put in spent on what it's supposed to be and not some creamed off for profit.

I've spent a lot of time working with children in poverty and my honest opinion is that you're barking completely up the wrong tree in your points, except Sure Start which made a real difference until it was mostly scrapped under austerity.

Universal fsm and childcare is very expensive and mostly benefits people who aren't in poverty.

Imo the things that would make the most difference (also very expensive).

• proper social housing and scrap right to buy to protect it for future generations.
• proper care for adults with addiction and other MH issues.
• Very early helpful support (not judgement or penalties) at the first sign that a family is struggling.

I’d also change the rules around social housing. I think it’s disgraceful that my husband’s parents live in a four bedroom council house, Sevenoaks, £390 per month. The house down the road is a private rent, husband and wife, one child, 2 bed house .. £1800 per month. I’d also get rid of right to buy.
I don’t think slashing benefits would hurt anyone but the children but things need to change. For example if you have a family who is claiming to not be able to afford the basics for their children yet they smoke 20 fags a day they should be investigated for neglect.

🥱 I might have known that someone would come along, and try to blame other people, who have nothing at all to do with the fact that several Governments have know about the housing issues, and have not done any real, meaningful thing, to address those issues. Section 21 anybody?

Rather than given support to quit? What happens to the children after the parents are judged to be neglectful? The care system really doesn't bring children out of poverty, it does exactly the opposite.

The biggest way to decrease childhood poverty is to encourage stable family formation, push people to take responsibility for their own lives and discourage irresponsible breeding.

That’s not possible though so I guess it’s an ever increasing tax take to have more and more taxpayer spending to tackle child poverty.

Why will you never own a house?

If there was proper LA housing stock there'd be no need to ban private rentals. If you just ban them, where do all the people currently in them live?

That's the one thing that could make such a difference, and I'd support high taxation and increased government borrowing to achieve it. Unfortunately any candidate that proposes it would never get elected.

I would get rid of the assumption which has become hard-wired into British society and mind sets that it is the state’s responsibility to pay for the costs of bringing up children. It isn’t. It’s the parents’ responsibility.

I would keep the two child benefit cap to ensure that people who live off the state continue to face the same choices & trade-offs as people who work for a living.

I would remove all taxpayer subsidies for the cost of childcare and use the money saved for tax cuts, targeting big increases in personal allowances to allow parents to keep more of what they earn. Then I would deregulate the chidcare sector to ensure that, while basic minimum standards are maintained, massive economies of scale & free competitive markets would reduce costs & increase customer choice.

I think to claim unemployment benefits, you must have proof of contraception in place.

We are enabling people to have and raise children in the most awful, chaotic circumstances, because there are zero consequences any more.

And that improves child poverty how?

I don't disagree with you that it is desirable that all parents step up, but when they don't?

Because you would be amazed at the work ethic necessity produces. And work ethic generally decreases poverty.

By putting money back in parents’ pockets, by reducing the cost of child care and by creating very strong financial incentives for parents to have only the number of children they can actually afford to support. And if that number is zero, so be it.

You're coming from a position of privilege though, with a stable upbringing and strong support network...I'm prepared to bet. If you don't have that it can take all your "work ethic" just to survive.

But that's why the support that's needed to really solve the problem will never happen, becuase "most" people can't comprehend how difficult life is for some.

I haven't suggested that benefits are the answer at all, and absolutely support the idea that people shouldn't need them, but you can't achieve that just by taking them away. It will need massive investment to solve the problems that got them there in the first place.

I’m really not. My life has been very far from privileged. You’re making huge assumptions. I had social services involvement, addict parents etc