Legal work can be a marathon. I’m a solicitor at CPAG, and we take on legal action to protect and defend families’ rights. Last week, nearly two years after the first judgment in one of our cases, we had confirmation that it won’t go any further – we have definitively won!
Universal credit (UC) is higher if you get it alongside certain other benefits, often called relevant benefits. If you get UC and your child qualifies for disability living allowance (DLA), you’re usually entitled to a UC ‘disabled child element’. Unfortunately, these extra UC amounts are not paid automatically when the relevant benefit is awarded, and the onus is placed on claimants to notify the DWP that they are entitled to these additional elements. Evidence collected by CPAG suggests that families are missing out on much-needed financial support as a result of this failure to share information within the DWP. Research on UC conducted by CPAG in 2023 explained the impact this had on carers. This follow-up briefing focuses specifically on the impact for parents of disabled children.
Universal credit (UC) claimants are not always getting extra amounts of UC they’re entitled to when they become eligible for some other benefits because of poor data-sharing within the DWP.
This report focuses on free school meals (FSM) in the North West of England, including new statistics on the number of children in poverty across the region missing out. It also looks at the role of schools and local authorities in FSM provision. Finally the report considers the socio-economic benefits, including the impact on children’s socio-economic rights, that support a nationwide universal roll out of FSM.
Every North West local authority has at least 1,500 school-age children in poverty who are not eligible for free school meals because the qualifying criteria is so restrictive, new analysis shows.
Child Poverty Action Group applauds the Mayor of London’s decision to provide free school meals to all London’s primary school children for another year if he wins a third term.
In this comprehensive guide the authors set out the evidence of the extent of child poverty and its impact of children. They explore how our social security system can help families on low incomes, and learn from what other countries have done to tackle child poverty. They then detail the priorities for action: the steps the government must take to help reduce child poverty. The book finishes by imagining a society without child poverty, and the opportunities that would unleash for all our children.