North East MP responds to new child poverty figures

Matt Vickers pointed to employment being the key on lifting children out of poverty, after new figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on Thursday (March 26) showed millions across the country are living on the breadline.

In the North East, areas with the highest levels of deprivation include Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, where almost 40 per cent of children live in poverty.

Nationally, there were an estimated 13.40 million individuals in households below the poverty line in the year 2024/25, above an estimated 12.93 million people in 2023/24.

The Stockton West MP said: “The most effective and sustainable way to lift people out of poverty is to help families into secure, well-paid jobs.

“Sadly, unemployment has already risen by 24% since this Labour Government came to power, and urgent action is needed to get Britain working again. 

“Britain’s working-age benefits bill is set to reach £210 billion by 2030.

“That is unsustainable, and it is not fair on those who get up early and go to work that Labour has chosen to increase the benefits bill further by lifting the two-child benefit cap.”

Matt Vickers MP.

The DWP data was broken down by both local authority and constituency – the most deprived being Labour’s Middlesbrough and Thornaby East at 44.2 per cent.

Child poverty has been a major focus for the Labour Government, which recently scrapped the controversial two-child benefit limit, a policy that had restricted child tax credit and universal credit to the first two children in most households.

The child poverty strategy was announced in December, and detailed plans to end the placement of families in bed and breakfasts beyond six weeks, introducing a legal duty to inform schools when a child is in temporary accommodation and more.

The Government has estimated that removing the two-child limit will lift 450,000 children out of poverty by the end of 2029/30.

Despite these steps, MP Andy McDonald has reiterated the government needs to “go further” when it comes to lifting kids out of deprivation.

Andy McDonald MP.

He said: “Fourteen years of Conservative austerity has left people struggling on lower real incomes but having to pay for higher prices. 

“The Labour Government has already taken a number of steps to support households with the cost of living, with a boost to the minimum wage giving millions of people a pay rise, taking levies off energy bills to save families around £150 on average, and scrapping the two-child limit, delivering free breakfast clubs, school-based nurseries, and 30 hours free childcare for families.

“But the fact of the matter is the government needs to go further. It has to deliver new employment protections that will increase job security and lift pay. It has to bear down on essential costs like rising food prices and rip-off utility bills. 

“Ultimately, to pass the public test, we can’t just tell people they are better off, they have got to feel it and recognise it for themselves.”