Children are paying the price for the cost-of-living crisis

Melanie Simmonds, head of Save the Children Cymru says it’s time to ‘Listen Up!’ and act on what children and families are telling us

Recently I came across a Save the Children report that was published fifteen years ago, around the time I first joined the charity.

Listen Up! Children and Young People talk about poverty is based on research conducted with a hundred children and young people aged between 5 and 16 who lived in areas of high deprivation across Wales in 2007.

It’s a sobering read and sadly resonates with what we are hearing from children and families we work with today who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

The children who took part – many of them now presumably parents themselves – talked about missing out on many aspects of childhood including social activities. They felt excluded and bullied because of the clothes they wore. They described the impact of poverty on children’s diets and how this could lead to poor health in later life. And they talked about how they instinctively knew when their parents felt sad because they couldn’t provide for their children.

Fast forward to 2022 and we’re hearing similar heart-breaking stories of children as young as seven being upset at school and telling their teacher that they heard their mum crying because there is only a tin of beans in the cupboard. We’re hearing from another mum left with just £50 to feed a family of four after paying her bills and not knowing what else she can cut back on.

We have also heard of parents who have had to send their children to live with other family members over the school holidays because they can’t afford to feed them, and of children who missed out on trips to places such as Barry Island over the summer simply because the bus or train fare was out of reach.

Children are paying the price for the cost-of-living crisis

We’ve been warning for months that children would pay the price for the cost-of-living crisis with our recent research revealing shocking results.

An Opinium survey for Save the Children of over a thousand families across the UK revealed that eight out of ten parents on Universal Credit say the cost-of-living crisis has already negatively impacted their child practically in terms of food, clothing and keeping warm. Nearly 75% said it has negatively impacted their child emotionally with some showing anxiety and struggling to sleep as they see their parents wrestle with soaring prices.

It’s unacceptable and urgent action is needed.

What can be done?

For some ideas and solutions let’s go back to the 2007 report. Here the children and young people reflected on how we should tackle poverty and ensure everyone gets the best possible start in life. Amongst their suggestions they listed:

• “Listen to our ideas and opinions.”
• “All the benefits and wages should be bigger somehow.”
• “Free activities (especially in the school holidays) – swimming, sports centre, discos, golf, ice-rink…”
• “Free buses into town during the school holidays . . .”

Sounds familiar?

Today, Save the Children is calling on the UK government to introduce a cost-of-living package that targets children specifically. We want to see an increase to the child element of Universal Credit of £10 per week per child, the benefits cap scrapped and a commitment to increasing benefits in line with inflation.

We also want to see Welsh Government presenting key targets and milestones to provide an urgent co-ordinated approach to tackling child poverty at local and national level allowing public and third sectors to work together. And that all programmes of support including free school meals and the childcare offer are available to all those children in Wales who are living in poverty.

Listening to the voices of children has never been so important.

For further information on our work visit savethechildren.org/wales