Child poverty in Wales – Daughter slept on bed propped up by books

Ruscoe warned that anyone could find themselves in a crisis situation because of ill-health or an unexpected life event.

Laurie Ryall, Wales director at Action for Children, gave evidence to MPs on the first day of their inquiry in Westminster, and said the absence of a single point of access for support had often left families experiencing child poverty feeling overwhelmed.

“They don’t always know what they’re entitled to or where to go, it’s confusing, it’s a minefield,” Ryall said.

Mabli Jones from the Bevan Foundation think tank told MPs that although child poverty had remained at the same level for two decades “what’s been happening under the surface is that poverty has got deeper”.

“Almost half – 47% – of people in Wales who live in poverty live in what’s classed as very deep poverty – that’s an income that is at or below 40% of the median,” she said.

“Families who are experiencing that kind of poverty are likely to be going without many of the basics.”

A UK government spokesperson said: “We’re determined to turn the tide on poverty, and our landmark child poverty strategy will lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this parliament – the largest reduction in child poverty since records began.”

They said abolishing the two-child limit would benefit an estimated 69,000 children in Wales, and a temporary cut to electricity bills and raising the National Living Wage had contributed to a fall in food bank usage.

A Welsh government spokesperson said it had “inherited a damning legacy of stubbornly high levels of child poverty”.

It said it was helping families through the first phase of its offer of 12.5 hours of free childcare to all two-year-olds and extending free school meals.

They also said the government was seeking assurance from the UK government that a proposed pilot scheme for £10 a week to each child to support low-income families would not affect families’ benefit payments.

“We continue to call on the UK government to use all the levers at its disposal, including those on welfare, to make a lasting difference to families in Wales,” they said.