Child poverty and Homelessness

Barnardo’s believe that families living in poverty are living on about £10 per day to pay for essential needs such as food, heating, toys, clothes, electricity and transport.

Living in poverty affects a  child’s life and  the rest of their life.

Other effects:

Less likely to get 5 GCSEs A* - C

Poorer health

Poor housing is an important  characteristic of poverty

Shelter campaign against  poor housing .  They believe poor housing affects  the increased incidence  of poor health, underachievement in school, mental health problems, being victims of bullying, may have speech problems, poor personal relationships, less opportunity in life.

Statistics  

Children who are living in poverty are in families that are in the bottom 20 per cent of the income distribution.

Those children can’t afford the following :

• 1 in 10 can’t afford to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays
• 15 per cent can't afford a bicycle
• Over half can’t afford a week’s holiday away from home with the family
• Over 1 in 5 can’t afford to go swimming at least once a month
• 1 in 6 can’t afford to have their friends round for tea or a snack once a fortnight

From Barnardo’s.

More than one million children live in poor housing

It causes illness, may miss out on a decent  education, suffer insecurity

3.8 million children live in poverty in the UK after the housing costs have been deducted