{"id":5175,"date":"2018-12-06T18:36:28","date_gmt":"2018-12-06T18:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/one-million-children-face-dickensian-poverty\/"},"modified":"2018-12-06T18:36:28","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T18:36:28","slug":"one-million-children-face-dickensian-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/one-million-children-face-dickensian-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"One million children face ‘Dickensian poverty’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n More hard up people are relying on food banks
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A million children under the age of 10, in England and Scotland, are facing “Dickensian” levels of poverty as they prepare for Christmas, a charity says.<\/p>\n

Action for Children drew on government figures for the number of low-income families with children of that age that are experiencing material deprivation.<\/p>\n

The charity also highlights a 30% rise in the demand for financial advice over the past three years.<\/p>\n

The government said since 2010, 300,000 fewer children were living in poverty.<\/p>\n

The charity will be running unofficial food banks over the Christmas period for families it says lack fresh food, suitable clothes and, in some cases, money to pay for heating.<\/p>\n

‘Prices going up’<\/h2>\n

It blames the “double blow” of government austerity and problems with the introduction of universal credit.<\/p>\n

Chief executive Julie Bentley said: “While the government tells us austerity is at an end, every day at Action for Children we see first-hand the impossible choices that families living in practically Dickensian levels of poverty have to make.”<\/p>\n

Parents of four, Paul and Donna Maund, from near Norwich, said the family had to rely on benefits to cover the weekly basics, despite Paul working full time in a sandwich shop.<\/p>\n

Donna said: “It won’t be long before we’ll have to start using food banks, as I’ve noticed prices going up and up.<\/p>\n

“By finding the bargains at discount supermarkets, I’ve worked hard to get my weekly food bill for the whole family down to \u00a345 – but the only way we can afford Christmas dinner and all the treats for the kids this year is by going to my parents. <\/p>\n

“Finding the money for our oil heating is the worst. <\/p>\n

‘Warm bed’<\/h2>\n

“I always have to borrow the money from my dad and then pay him back every week. <\/p>\n

“I’ve only just paid for one refill and it looks like at this rate I’m going to run out again just before Christmas.”<\/p>\n

Ms Bentley said: “Our youngest children should be waking up in a warm bed after a visit from Santa on Christmas morning – but the shocking truth is that in 2018 many will be cold and hungry in the fifth richest country of the world.<\/p>\n

“No parent should be forced to face the appalling choice between ‘eating or heating’ at Christmas – but this is the reality for far too many in the UK today.”<\/p>\n

‘Best chances’<\/h2>\n

The charity is calling for the chancellor to end the freeze on children’s benefits so that rising prices do not push more families into poverty.<\/p>\n

A government official said it wanted every child to have the very best chances in life. <\/p>\n

“There are now one million fewer people living in absolute poverty since 2010, including 300,000 children.<\/p>\n

“With this government’s changes, there are fewer children in workless households than ever before, boosting their prospects in life. <\/p>\n

“Household incomes have never been higher, income inequality has fallen and taxes are down for families and businesses.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption More hard up people are relying on food banks A million children under the age of 10, in England and Scotland, are facing “Dickensian” levels of poverty as they prepare for Christmas, a charity says. Action for Children drew on government figures for the number of low-income families with … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5176,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}