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Nicole’s husband, a mother of five living in Greater Manchester, northwest England, works full time but doesn’t have enough money to pay the bills at the end of the month.
And although she assures that her children are not in need, the family has had to turn to food banks to meet all their needs.
This is despite social pressure generated by people who view welfare benefits for the poorest in the UK with suspicion.
“I was embarrassed to use food banks, especially when my husband was working. But some people don’t realize the (economic) problems that families can face, even when they are working,” Nicole said last November, in an interview with the BBC about a possible increase in welfare benefits for families with more than two children.
“They don’t realize that everyone’s situation is not the same. And it’s the children who suffer because of this, how can people ignore that?”
Nicole’s family is not alone in this problem.
The government estimates that 14.2 million people live below the poverty line after paying housing costs.
Meanwhile, the number of children living in poverty in the UK has reached its highest level since comparative statistics began in 2002.
As of April 2024, 4.5 million minors were in relatively low-income families, according to the government’s official measure of poverty.
The figure, published by the Department for Work and Pensions, represents an increase of 100,000 children on the previous year and equates to 31% of the country’s children.
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This number has increased significantly since 2021, and the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG), an NGO which investigates child poverty in the UK, predicts that 4.8 million children will be in poverty by the end of the current Labor government’s term (2029-30).
Adam Corlett, an economist at the Resolution Foundation think tank, told the BBC in March that “the latest data is a stark reminder of the scale of deprivation among families, with almost a third of children in Britain now living in poverty.”
Christmas in danger
Danielle, a mother of four, had a 15-year relationship with the father of her children, which ended in January.
Now she is alone and unemployed; She left her job to care for one of her young children who was disabled.
In an interview with the BBC also in November, she said she had to warn her children about the possibility of not being able to give them “many” Christmas presents.
“Now I’m alone and it’s difficult,” she said.
When Danielle split from her partner, she and her children, aged two to 13, received support from homelessness charity The Wallich.
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The family was moved to temporary accommodation, but the move caused them to “lose part of their support network”, commented Jamie-Lee Cole, who works for the NGO.
“And now I’m in this situation where I can’t go to work, but I hope that one day I can go back to work,” Danielle, 32, added.
The woman said her children were missing “a lot of things” and she was worried about the holiday season.
“Nothing is cheap these days,” he said.
I told them they could have whatever I could afford, and if they didn’t have it, there was nothing I could do.
Danielle and Nicole, in interviews conducted on separate dates, said a new policy promoted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor government could be a big help to their families.
However, the initiative will not come into force until 2026.
An increase in aid
Since 2017, due to a policy approved under the Conservative government David Cameron, low-income families in the UK can no longer claim welfare for more than two children.
Data published by BBC News in November said this meant 1.6 million children from large families were unable to seek help.
This limit will be removed from April 2026, as announced by the current Minister of Finance, Rachel Reeves, during the presentation of the new budget.
The charity Trussell Trust, which runs a network of food banks, said the two-child limit was “the main driver of child poverty” and removing it would be “the right thing to do”.
The organization said these limitations have pushed millions of families into greater precarity and are preventing children from getting a “good start in life”.
“Every week, Trussell network food banks support parents who have done everything they can to protect their children from hunger,” said Helen Barnard, policy director at Trussell.
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“They go weeks without eating so that the children have enough to eat, turning wrapping themselves in blankets into a game to avoid turning on the heating, trying to pretend that everything is fine, but it is not,” he added.
The Labor government has been criticized by the opposition in Parliament, who say it has lost control of the welfare system and the cost of its decision will fall on taxpayers.
Revees insists he is “fully funded” because his administration has addressed fraud and errors in the welfare system, taken action against tax evasion and reformed taxes on gambling.
A bad concept
Nicole says there is a “misconception” about families receiving government assistance.
And this idea only makes your problems worse.
“I’ve been working since I was 13, I’ve always paid into the system and now, when I need it, I feel like it’s not there for us,” he commented.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions, 59% of households affected by the two-child restriction have people in work.
Since having her youngest child, she says the cost of living has increased. Today, she constantly worries about money.
And I feel like she was “punished” for having more than two children.
“Our children always have what they need, we guarantee that, but it is a constant worry. Food, books, a school uniform,” he said.
“I’ve been wearing the same clothes for 12 years,” says the 30-year-old woman.
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