Number of children living in destitution has increased, say young person’s charity

Buttle, a charity in the UK working with children and young people in crisis, published their annual ‘State of Child Poverty’ report today which stated that the number of children living in destitution (the most extreme form of poverty) has increased. Their findings showed that 60% of children that they worked with were living in destitution, up by 15% from last year.

Destitution is defined by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as ‘going without the essentials we all need to eat, stay warm and dry, and keep clean’.

These statistics are incredibly indicative of the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and the aftermath of a pandemic that has disproportionately affected people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Buttle stated the following:

“The already high level of mental illness is on the rise once again, only exacerbated by these poor conditions families are forced to live in. Education is starting to be seen as a luxury, as the costs associated with getting to school and engaging in education successfully become too much.

Many households are going without heating or washing due to the significant costs of doing so. This is leaving children without basic levels of hygiene and wellbeing, with many living in cold, damp homes. They cannot afford the basic standard of physical care required to make their attendance in education possible, let alone the essential resources required to travel to their education settings, or access learning online and at home.”.

Sources:

https://buttleuk.org/news/news-list/state-of-child-poverty-2023/

https://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/what-destitution