What does living in poverty mean?
Living in poverty means more than just having a low income. Extensive research and data show that children who grow up in poverty face a greater risk of having poor health, being exposed to crime and failing to reach their full potential. It means they miss out on school trips, do not have adequate winter clothing and are not able to enjoy leisure activities with their peers. As a result, their education suffers, making it difficult to get the qualifications they need to move on to sustainable, well-paid jobs. This limits their potential to earn the money needed to support their own families in later life, and so a cycle of poverty is created. Therefore in order to ensure today’s poor children are not tomorrow’s poor adults, child poverty must be tackled now.