The number of children living in poverty on the Isle of Wight has hit a record high — at 1 in 5.
Latest figures from the government’s Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 4,866 under 16-year-olds were living in families with low income on the Isle of Wight.
That is an estimated 22.2% of children — more than 1 in 5.
It has increased by more than 300 children in a year and is the highest figure since records started in 2014 — when 14.8% of children were living in low-income families. The proportion of affected families has mostly increased, except for a small decline in 2019/20.
The biggest rise in families with low incomes, defined as those earning less than 60% of the national median household income, before housing costs are considered, was in 2016/17.
Of Island children aged 0 to 15 living in poverty last year, 1,416 were under 5-years-old.
DWP figures also show 3,778 children (17.3%) of children aged under 16 were living in absolute poverty. That means when a household’s income is too low to meet the basic needs of living, including food, shelter and healthcare.
It comes as concerns are raised over the cost of living crisis, with rising inflation and energy bills soaring.
The Isle of Wight Council’s Alliance administration has pledged to tackle poverty in its 5-year plan. Among 50 aspirations, it promised to prioritise dealing with health inequalities and poverty, highlighted during the pandemic, by undertaking a public health-led approach.
In time for the council’s 2022/23 budget, Councillor Andrew Garratt proposed an anti-poverty strategy, calling for it to be embedded in the council’s decision-making. Instead, a members’ board was to be created, to drive the strategy forward.
Life under the Tories.
Yet most of you will still vote for the self entitled Eton toffs.
Madness.
How many of these kids parents have up to date phones, Netflix, tattoos, body piercings, smoke, buy drugs. . . .
Never ever again for me
And how about bringing this to the attention of those well over paids in our beloved council?
is that real 3rd world poverty – that being no home, no food etc or 1st world poverty – got mobile phone, got sky tv, got state funded housing, free healthcare, free school meals, child benefit, universal credit – but skint because done all the benefit money on alcohol/baccy
So true but you missed out the tattoos, visits to the nail salon and McDonalds.
Whilst I do not suggest these families do not exist, there are plenty of families living in poverty whilst working two jobs, and without luxuries. May I suggest reading a little more wider than The Sun and Mirror…
You are so right Susan and the way things have gone it will be disastrous for many families in months to come and this will have a snowball effect on the whole island .
shops etc who think business bad now just wait it will get tougher
Sounds to me, like you are jealous ?
Good luck to them !
Just because people like yourselves have been screwed by the system, it doesn’t mean that we are all Muppets.
Only fools and horses work.
@ class war.
There have always been families living on a very low income, such as mine when the children were young. As a care worker, it was subsistence pay for us, who actually did the caring work – whereas the Council officers over us were paid handsomely and furthermore were paid a higher motoring allowance per mile than we were.
I doubt if anything has changed.
– It’s how they treated us, how they regarded us..
Children living in poverty due to families on low incomes but with “high” aspirations. By this I mean dependency on drugs by the parents who selfishly put their needs before the needs of their children. Of course I could be wrong, but people have to prioritise and economise.
Nobody will like this, but let’s face facts – there’s a LOT of selfish mothers out there. Between Housing Benefit, Family Allowance and Universal Credit, no child should be in poverty. These mother’s have new phone contracts, they’re paying out for hair and beauty and you see them in brand new clothes they’ve bought for themselves whilst the kid is going without or with the bare minimum.
Do the basic maths and you’ll see that an impoverished child is a neglected child.
Selfish mothers? What about fathers?
Fathers are in prison probably.
I was a neglected child.
Never done me no harm.
( Apart from the Borderline personality disorder ).
Yes it is bad, but I bet mom and dad have the most expensive mobile phone on the planet. Oh and at least they don’t have to worry about being obliterated by bombs.
Don’t forget the kid either
The Isle of Wight Council’s Alliance administration has pledged to tackle poverty…… By doing what exactly. By putting taxes up and charging people with no money, a higher price for everything. We’ll done.
I know working single parents that are not wanting to be alive anymore because every month there’s not enough to cover the bills. It’s a struggle for them with no light at the end of the tunnel. Mega high rent and mega high council tax being the top two. Yet the council have no mercy on these people.
So let’s make the children suffer more , increase council tax and pay those 6 Council managers who earn over £100,000 even more !.Why do councils not understand they create so many of these problems for people and children – school uniform,internet,school trips ,cost of transport ( some are paying school travel and then their kids go hungry). ( Council tax or food/heating ) Almost 4,000 in absolute poverty not good for The Island
Then lets not forget the single people on low wages who can no longer afford to live away from home, and the pensioners on state pension with no other means of income.
What annoys me more than anything is that no figures of how much income these families have, and why is it that these kids have top of the range mobile phones. My parents had to scrimp and save ever penny they earnt but I never went with out. Too much of got to have everything because next door has. People should not have kids if they cannot afford to keep them, too much of the state will pay for it meaning us tax payers pay for it
Is that why you have no children ?
Bitter old spinster ?
Everything annoys you.
The working classes struggle.
Why don’t you freaks start picking on the rich and the privileged ?
Because, they are out of your league,
and secretly, you want to be like them.
Closet snobs, but with no money to go with it.
I almost feel sorry for you sad sacks.
Very generalised statement. Do ALL of these children have the top of the range stuff? No, they do not. There is a stigma attached to families living in poverty, one that you are refueling by making such baseless claims. Most of these families are working hard to try and make ends meet. Yes there are some families that are not, but there are usually deeper issues and then the cycle reproduces. Society judges, discriminates and then wonders why people are the way they are.
everyone in this chat seems to be under the impression that mobile phones are an expensive luxury. Most of those “top of the range” phones will be a couple year old hand me downs and monthly plans these days are incredibly cheap
And none in all councillors live in any sort of poverty or cold or putting fuel in there cars
Its so wrong
Britain is one of the riches country’s in the world if it cannot feed it’s children properly than there is no future
It’ll be alright when we achieve City status!
The con trick is complete, the people earning a £1000 an hour have convinced the people earning a £100 an hour that the people earning £10 an hour should blame those on benefits for the countries problems.
100% SPOT ON FELLA.
So true.
A couple of weeks ago we saw an ITV street interview of a woman who tearfully claimed she had to choose between feeding herself or her child, with a packet of 20 cigarettes clearly visible in her pocket. Oops! We all know what they cost, plus her nails were glossy perfect too.
As a retired mental health clinician, I can tell you loudly, that we must provide universal support directly to help children. We need hot school lunches, not junk food. We need milk at school once a day, and to have some sort of breakfast food available freely and without stigma. In Canada, fruit and yogurt are usually on display first thing so kids can just help themselves. After WW2 vitamin supplements were also provided. At that time it was estimated that 1 in 10 London children had malnutrition. Now IOW has a higher rate. Remember lack of food, poor health, leads to more costs at the NHS level. These measures save costs.