Wales 'has highest child poverty rates in UK' says Save The Children

Almost a third of children in Wales are living in poverty - the highest percentage of any UK nation, according to a leading children's charity.

Save The Children has called on the Welsh government to take "urgent" action or risk more children being "swept up" into poverty.

Ending child poverty by 2020 was a "fundamental" Welsh government priority but the figures have not dropped.

The Welsh government said it has increased support during the pandemic.

Poverty is not having enough money to buy food, clothing and a safe place to live and in 2015, the government set a target to "make sure no child is living in poverty by 2020".

Ministers in Wales said six years ago that child poverty levels in Wales were "unacceptable" with their data at the time saying that one in three children lived below the poverty line.

Now Save The Children said figures from 2019-20, compiled before the Covid pandemic, showed 31% of children in Wales were still living in poverty, compared to 30% in England and 24% in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Even before the pandemic, almost 200,000 children were living in poverty in Wales, with a higher proportion of children affected than at any point in the past five years.

"We've repeatedly heard from families living on low incomes how they have had to cut back on essentials such as food, heating and clothing for children and are sinking deeper into debt," said Melanie Simmonds, head of Save the Children in Wales.

"Many parents also didn't have the tools, resources and skills to adequately support their child's learning and development at home which led to a lot of stress and anxiety. Action needs to be taken at all levels of government."

By India Pollock, BBC Cymru Wales Social Affairs Correspondent

Child poverty is not a new problem for the Welsh government.

It is one they have been trying to tackle for years as targets to end child poverty have been made and scrapped.

It is not an easy problem to solve either and there have been plenty of projects that have tried.

These new figures look at the period before Covid-19 so the picture now will be worse.

Those on low incomes will have taken a financial cut when furloughed or made redundant and we know that more than 54,000 food bank parcels went to children in Wales between April 2020 and March 2021 - one parcel every 10 minutes.

So, the Welsh government now has a tougher job on it's hands and might try some more radical ideas such as the pilot of Universal Basic Income that they announced last weekend.

Every council area in Wales has at least one in five children living below the poverty line.

"The figures speak for themselves - the situation for children couldn't be starker," said Ellie Harwood, Wales development manager at Child Poverty Action Group.

"An unacceptable number of children continue to grow up in poverty in Wales, even though the majority have parents who are in work. We can't allow this situation to go on - poverty harms every aspect of a child's development and has long-term consequences for our society as a whole.

"While the main social security powers remain in Westminster, there are many things public bodies can do to reduce cost pressures on families in Wales."

The Save The Children research, conducted by Loughborough University for the UK End Child Poverty Coalition, says 75% of children living in poverty in 2019/20 were in households with at least one working adult - up from 61% in 2014-15.

Their data shows parts of north and west Wales have seen the most dramatic rise in child poverty in the past five years - they say fuelled by stagnating family incomes.

Save The Children has called on the UK government to scrap plans to cut Universal Credit and the charity wants the Welsh government and Welsh councils to help "make sure we are going in the right direction in reducing child poverty".

The Welsh government said it would "support all those children and families who need help" and added it had increased support for families living in poverty during Covid the pandemic, such as an extra £52m to provide free school meals to Easter 2022 and £13.9m via the Discretionary Assistance Fund.

"In 2018, the Equality and Human Rights Commission reported the UK government's tax and welfare reforms would push an extra 50,000 children in Wales into poverty by 2021-22," said a Welsh government spokesperson.

"The coronavirus pandemic comes on top of this. Our Child poverty income maximisation action plan sets out a series of practical actions to help maximise family incomes, reducing living costs and helping to build financial resilience."

The UK government said the latest figures showed the number of children in absolute poverty had fallen by 300,000 since 2010.

"We are committed to supporting families most in need, spending billions more on welfare and planning a long-term route out of poverty by protecting jobs through furlough and helping people find new work through our Plan for Jobs," said a UK government spokesperson.

"We also introduced our £269m Covid local support grant to help children and families stay warm and well-fed throughout the pandemic."

Cardiff has the highest percentage of children in poverty with 36% while Wrexham is the local authority area with the greatest growth in child poverty over the past five years - rising almost three times the Welsh national average.

Cardiff council leader Huw Thomas said the figures were "no surprise" and the authority was "determined to fight inequality" but added they needed help from both UK and Welsh governments.