Calls for two-child limit to be scrapped to help South West children in poverty
30% of the region's children find themselves in destitution
A children's charity is calling for the Government to scrap the two-child limit on support to help the thousands of children in the south west living in poverty.
The Child Poverty Action Group say 30% of children in the region are living destitution as parents struggle to make ends meet.
According to research by the charity, 10,000 children have fallen into poverty since the General Election in June, leading to calls to provide more support for struggling families.
There's concerns the situation will only worsen during the winter months with higher energy bills and food costs still high.
Head of Policy, Sophie Howes, told Greatest Hits Radio that children are the ones losing out.
"It's a particularly difficult time for families to cover those basic costs. And it's like children who are paying the price for that," she said.
And while children are resilient to tough situations, Sophie said they're missing out on things many of us enjoyed as youngsters, such as swimming lessons.
"They're just missing out on the basic things that I think most of us sort of remember from our own childhoods.
"It's actually just like a really important life skills, being able to learn to swim, but we have families that we work with who say it's those types of things that have to go out the window so that you can prioritise really basic things like paying your rent and keeping food on the table."
Policy dragging hundreds into poverty on a daily basis
The charity's research suggests the two-child limit is an insurmountable barrier for families amid the cost-of-living crisis.
The policy, which allows benefits to be paid for up to two child, but a third, born after 2017, being ineligible.
Sophie told us the analysis shows a direct link between the two-child limit policy and the 109 children being dragged into poverty everyday since June 5th this year.
She says a change has to be made in the upcoming budget.
"That's something really, really tangible that the government could do today that would lift 300,000 children out of poverty overnight, 700,000 children will be living in less deep poverty if this policy went.
So that's something that, you know, the government can take immediate action on and it would really, really help those children who are living in poverty now."
There are various reasons children and their families end up living in poverty, such as parent with long-term illness or significant care responsibilities.
But Sophie said that childhoods need safeguarding.
"We do think it's really, really important that while children are young, they need their childhoods to be sort of protected in a way, and there is a role for the government to step in and make sure that those families have got the support they need to provide those basic things for children."
Reducing child poverty a Government priority
The Government says it's determined to reduce the number of children across the UK living in poverty.
A Government spokesperson said: "No child should be in poverty - that's why our new cross-government taskforce is developing an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty and give children the best start in life.
"Alongside this, we have extended the Household Support Fund to support the most vulnerable with essentials this winter and have committed to reviewing Universal Credit while we deliver on our plan to tackle inequality and make work pay."