Dear Prime Minister

In Britain 1.8 million children are growing up in deep poverty. These are children in families whose household income is too low to even cover the basics.

Our frontline staff have told us that child poverty levels are at the worst they can remember, and they have had to support thousands of families desperate to keep their children warm, clothed and well-fed.

Families with children are among the hardest hit by the cost of living crisis as they typically face bigger bills, have smaller savings and are less able to take on extra work. With soaring energy bills, rising prices and reductions to Universal Credit, parents are pushed to their limits, and we are deeply worried about these families. This has reached a level of crisis that could be avoided.

Your government must take steps to give families the support they need and strengthen the safety net. The simplest and most effective means of achieving this quickly is to act through existing mechanisms in the social security system to top-up family incomes. Therefore, we’re calling on your government to urgently support low-income families by:

• Restoring benefits to a decent level. If the cost of living goes up, benefits should reflect this.
• Increasing the child element of Universal Credit to help lift children out of poverty.
• Delivering a serious and cross-government strategy to tackle child poverty and making it a key part of the government’s plans for levelling up.

Lifting children – and their families – out of poverty is the best way to protect families and the taxpayer from the high costs of poverty.

Nobody needs levelling up to work more than the children across the UK with whom Action for Children works. Their childhoods and life chances depend on it. We urge you to make the right decision.

Thank you.