Research, campaigns and opinion pieces on poverty, including how the benefits system, childcare system and high-quality jobs can reduce poverty.
JRF aims to bring about change by offering routes out of poverty for families and their children. We’re working to make sure everyone has access to:
Child poverty remains significantly higher than poverty rates for both working-age and pension-age adults, making it a critical issue to address in tackling poverty overall. Despite the UK being one of the richest countries in the world, around 4.5 million children (1 in 3) live in poverty. Children in lone-parent families face an even higher risk, with 4 in 10 living in poverty.
The impact of child poverty is severe, affecting children’s health, wellbeing, and future economic opportunities. Children in poverty are also more likely to experience deeper and more persistent hardship, with around 1 million children facing destitution, the most extreme form of poverty, in 2023.
In 2023/24, 7.9 million working-age adults, 4.5 million children, and 1.9 million pensioners were living in poverty. In 2023/24, among people in families receiving Universal Credit or equivalent benefits, poverty levels were alarmingly high at 44%. However, poverty is not limited to those receiving financial support. Many low-income households do not qualify for means-tested benefits yet still struggle. Over 4 in 10 (44%) of working-age households in the bottom fifth of incomes who are not on means-tested benefits are in arrears with at least one household bill, while around 7 in 10 (69%) are going without essential items or experiencing food insecurity in May 2025.
JRF is calling for bold action in Scotland, where all parties agreed child poverty targets for 2030 but the 2024 interim goal was missed. While Scotland has made more progress than the rest of the UK, 1 in 4 children still live in poverty. With only one parliamentary term left, meeting the 2030 targets requires urgent, sustained action.
In England we are putting pressure on the Government to scrap the two-child limit, which would lift 500,000 children out of poverty and reduce hardship for over a million more. This punitive policy restricts support through Universal Credit to the first 2 children in a family, leaving large families thousands of pounds worse off each year.
This briefing sets out which children are at greatest risk of such severe and acute poverty, and what a child poverty strategy must include to address it.
Without additional targeted policy action, poverty will not fall between 2025 and 2029.
Poverty is still too high, people are feeling overlooked and ignored by politicians — the next Scottish Parliament is vital for a better future for children in Scotland.
This report sets out the nature of poverty in the UK in the run-up to 2024's General Election. It also sets out the scale of action necessary for the Government to deliver the change it has promised.
