More than twenty thousand children are living poverty, according to new figures published by the End Child Poverty Coalition.
The statistics show there has been a rise of over 3,000 children living in poverty across Milton Keynes in the last year, with 30% of children across the city living below the poverty line.
Labour’s Parliamentary candidates in Milton Keynes say that record high inflation and rising interest rates have contributed to a cost of living crisis, driving child poverty up across the city. While Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary has criticised the Government’s two child benefit cap.
Chris Curtis, Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Milton Keynes North, said:
“We have all been feeling the squeeze since the Tory Government crashed the economy. Interest rates on mortgages have skyrocketed and prices in shops are rising faster in the UK than in any other G7 country.”
“But we know that families with children will be among the hardest hit, and the latest figures show the devastating impact the cost of living crisis is having on our city’s children.”
Emily Darlington, Labour's Parliamentary Candidate for Milton Keynes South, said:
“Every week, record high inflation is driving up prices at the supermarket and making the weekly shop harder to afford. With interest rates going up 12 times in a row, mortgages are getting more expensive and that’s driving up rent for families across the city. Everyone is getting hit hard but it is children with families who are getting hit the hardest.”
Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Johnathan Ashworth MP, criticised the Government’s two-child benefit cap policy, saying:
“We are very, very aware that this is one of the single most heinous elements of the system which is pushing children and families into poverty today. The former Conservative welfare minister David Freud described this as a vicious policy. He was absolutely correct to describe it as a vicious policy.
"The Conservatives think that sanctions are the way in which you push people into work. They are wrong on that, they take a punitive approach. What we should be doing is offering people real opportunities to re-skill and up-skill. Not least because we know the labour market is changing.
"Over a million more disabled people in poverty after the Conservatives after 13 years. You've actually got 550,000 children destitute. That's what's happening in Tory Britain today. And for Tory MPs to say their priority is a big inheritance tax cut of course that makes me angry. This is a last gasp government that is completely out of touch with the needs of the British people.”
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