329,000 North West children trapped in poverty as parents face barriers to work

Two-thirds of children living in poverty in the North West could be trapped in hardship because their parent(s) face at least one potential barrier to work or taking on more work1, new Action for Children research reveals.

Analysis of official data reveals work is often not a route out of hardship for families where every parent is already working full time, or where there is long-term sickness, disability or caring responsibilities.

The North West and South West regions were found to have the joint highest proportion of children (65%) living in ‘work-constrained’ child poverty in England.

Tracy Hopkins from Blackpool Citizen's Advice says says unfortunately these numbers aren't unexpected: "When you look at the statistics they are absolutely shocking but they aren't surprising.

"We see families day in day out really struggling to make ends meet, and these aren't families who are out of work necessarily, these are families where both parents work."

Tracy added: "The impact this has on children is that they get their childhood taken away from them.

"They worry about money, they face anxiety because they know that their parents are in a situation financially that is absolutely terrible, and I think there needs to be more action and more done for children in these circumstances."

To estimate the number of these children in poverty whose families have barriers to work, Action for Children researchers analysed government data and found that between 2017 and 2022 there were, on average, 329,000 children growing up in ‘work-constrained’ families in the North West.

That’s around two-thirds (65%) of the total number of the region’s 505,000 children living in relative poverty – which is classed as a household income of less than 60% of the average, after housing costs.

The research found the major barriers to work these families in the North West faced included:

• already being in full-time work: around 57,000 children are in poverty despite one or both parents working full-time – including 31,000 children in couple families where both parents are in full-time work;

• disability: a further 150,000 children are in poverty where there was at least one disabled parent, and an extra 33,000 children where at least one child was disabled; as well as

• caring responsibilities: an extra 71,000 children in poverty where there is at least one child under two; and another 18,000 children in single parent families in poverty where the parent is working part-time with a child aged two to 10.

A large proportion of these families experienced multiple barriers, meaning they’re even less likely to be able to improve their income by taking on work.

In the North West, there were:

• 197,000 children in families with one barrier to work;

• 112,000 children with two barriers; and

• 19,000 with three or more barriers.