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'Shameful' – 100,000 more children slip into poverty due to falling family incomes

Poverty Pupil Premium and disadvantage Vulnerable children
More than 100,000 more children and young people have slipped into poverty in the space of a year, sparking calls for “bold action” from government.
In work, in poverty: More than 7 in 10 children living in poverty are in families where at least one parent is working. Falling real-terms income is cited as the main reason behind increased child poverty figures - Adobe Stock

Official government poverty figures were updated last week and show that in 2023/24 around 4.45 million children were living in poverty (DWP, 2025). This is up from around 4.33 million the year previously.

This equates to 31% of all children and the data shows that 7 in 10 (72%) are from families where at least one parent is working. The figures note that the increase in poverty “was mainly due to a real-terms fall in income from employment and self-employment for households with children”.

A family is considered to be living in poverty if its household income after housing costs is less than 60% of the median income (about £22,500); they are living in deep poverty if their income is less than 50% of the median.

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