Figures released by Loughborough University and the End Child Poverty Coalition show an increase of 1.8% between the number of children in Rother who were in poverty in 2020/21 (29%) and the number of children in Rother who were in poverty in 2021/22 (30.8%). This brings the percentage of children in poverty almost back to pre-pandemic levels (31% in 2018/19) meaning that just over 3 in 10 children in Rother were living in poverty in 2021/22. This figure is unlikely to have dropped since then.
The data, which tracks the levels of child poverty from 2014/15 to 2021/22, shows that Rother has had a relatively consistent level of child poverty year to year, with the exception of the periods 2019/20 and 2020/21 where child poverty drops by 2%.
Councillor Sam Coleman, Portfolio Holder for Wellbeing and Equalities, said of the figures, “It is deeply saddening to see this increase in child poverty which clearly shows an impact on local families following the removal of financial support available to families during the pandemic. The fear would be that this figure continues to rise following recent economic events.”
The Rother figures come in above the UK average (29%) and give credibility to the importance of recent work by the Rother Alliance administration in developing an Anti-Poverty Strategy and shifting the Council’s focus towards Health and Wellbeing over the coming years.
At a constituency level, the percentage comes in at 29% for Bexhill and Battle, in line with the national average, which might reflect the differences between the District boundary and the Constituency, particularly with lower socio-economic areas like Tilling Green in Rye being outside of the Constituency boundary and the addition of more affluent areas west of the Rother boundary.
Rother's statistics also show a higher level of child poverty than the South East average, which was 25% in 2021/22, although less than neighbours Hastings, where the percentage of children in poverty was 34.9%.
Looking at the UK as a whole, the report identifies some interesting key findings for 2021/22:
“71% of children who were in poverty after housing costs, and 67% of those who were in poverty before housing costs, were in a family where at least one adult was working.”
“Children living in a family where someone is disabled had a poverty rate of 36% after housing costs, compared with 25% for children living in families where no-one is disabled.”
“There are persistent ethnic inequalities in child poverty across the UK. 47% of children in Asian or Asian British households and 53% of those in Black households were in poverty after housing costs, compared with just 25% of those where the head of household was White.”
To read more about the data and the associated report, and to view a map of the data by postcode, visit http://endchildpoverty.org.uk/child-poverty
*Data sourced from endchildpoverty.org.uk/child-poverty
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