More than half of the children in Tower Hamlets are living in poverty

13 April 2012

A child poverty map exposed Tower Hamlets as the worst-hit area today, as campaigners said targeting government cuts at families would cause "economic and social disaster".

The Campaign to End Child Poverty found more than half - 52 per cent - of children in the east London borough live in poverty, compared with a national average of 20 per cent.

Islington, Hackney, Westminster, Newham and Camden also figure among the worst 10 local authority areas. At least four in 10 children are in poverty in 19 parliamentary constituencies, the report found, while "serious concentrations" of deprivation in 100 local wards affect between 50 per cent and 70 per cent of children.

Bethnal Green and Bow was the worst parliamentary constituency for child poverty, while Prime Minister David Cameron's Witney constituency in Oxfordshire and his deputy Nick Clegg's Sheffield Hallam constituency were among the 20 with the lowest levels. The report said 89 constituencies already meet the Government's headline target for 2020 by having child poverty rates of 10 per cent or lower.

However, it warned that tax and benefit changes outlined in the Chancellor's autumn statement showed the greater burden was being placed on the poorest, which "not only puts children's wellbeing at risk, it carries economic risks, too. Child poverty already costs the economy around £25billion a year. Any rise in child poverty will push up this cost."

Campaign executive director Alison Garnham said: "Child poverty costs us billions picking up the pieces of damaged lives and unrealised potential. Targeting cuts on families will prove both an economic and a social disaster, with businesses losing billions of pounds of demand and families struggling to keep their kids clothed, fed and warm."

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that a couple with two children will be £1,250 a year worse off by 2015 as families "shoulder the burden of austerity". It has been predicted that the number of children in poverty before housing costs are taken into account could rise from 2.5million in 2010/11 to 3.3million by 2020/21.

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