The cost of not ending child poverty: How we can think about it, how it might be measured, and some evidence

This study examines the cost of child poverty to society as a whole.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has been calculating the cost of ending child poverty. But the substantial cost to taxpayers of helping families on low incomes has to be set against the large costs of allowing child poverty to persist. This paper reviews the costs of child poverty to society, including psychological and monetary costs. It proposes a structure for describing the wider costs of child poverty, and gives some examples of the costs incurred, including, among others, housing homeless families with children, free school meals, and primary health care for children from deprived backgrounds.