By Maeve McGoldrick
Courtney, David and Daniel deliver the End Child Poverty petition to No. 10 Downing Street Photo: (c) Andy Aitchison / ECP
It’s the tenth anniversary of the Labour Government’s pledge to end child poverty in a generation. Community Links are proud members of the Campaign to End Child Poverty: three young people, Courtney, David and Daniel from our Arc in the Park open access childcare project went to Downing Street to ask the Prime Minster: “Will you keep your promise Gordon, and improve the lives of millions of UK children living in poverty today?”
As the recession bites, an investment of at least £3 billion would provide a vital timely and targeted injection for families in our poorest communities who are hardest hit. Without this £3bn in the forthcoming budget the Government will be 700,000 children short of its target to halve child poverty by 2010.
It is timely that on the tenth anniversary of the historic promise by this government to end child poverty the latest unemployment figures are released today. As unemployment rises, more and more people are becoming dependant on benefits to support them through the recession. However the current welfare system is not equipped to provide the right support and will ultimately trap thousands more on benefits. The rigid nature of the outdated system does not reflect modern day employment. Jobs advertised at the Jobcentre are temporary, part time, weekend work and often pay on commission.
A recent Observer article ‘At the Mercy of Gang masters: the growing army of jobless’ shows that more and more people will fall into the informal economy during the recession. Government needs to reform the welfare system in a way that will enable people to remain in the formal labour market to some degree and prevent the need for cash-in-hand work, where currently people are criminalised if they are to accept any work earning over £5 on Job Seekers Allowance.
Community Links have made a number of recommendations to Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Rt Hon James Purnell including increasing the levels of earnings disregard and removing the 16 hour rule which would enable benefit claimants to work legally- retaining their skills during the economic downturn.
At Community Links we have researched the impact of poverty on local children and published our recomendations for change … we’ll continue to address child poverty by both providing direct services locally and campaigning for change nationally.
Three children from Community Links in Newham handed in the End Child Poverty petitions yesterday, recently parents involved in our Need NOT Greed campaign spoke to MPs and Lords at Westminster about poverty and the benefits system.
Mike Crim, Programme Manager for Community Links open access childcare Ark in the Park said:
“I’m very proud of three Arc in the Park children; Courtney, David and Daniel, who, this morning, knocked on the door of No. 10 Downing St. and handed over a petition to the Prime Minister on behalf of the End Child Poverty Campaign. Well done children! This is Community Links at its finest!”
Government needs to establish a modern, flexible welfare system to prevent children from growing up in poverty and to help families cope with the effects of the recession. We think that the best way to ensure this happens effectively is for government to listen to people with first-hand experience of poverty, unemployment and the welfare system: and its great to see our youngest and finest standing up and taking action!
Let us know what you think.
Post by unicef: http://bit.ly/UNICEF about ending Child Poverty and Moussa from Oxfam comments on the welfare reform debate yesterday, “new modes of thinking that we need to see from government to tackle this recession. A good start would be to look at welfare reform from the perspective of people’s lived realities, and of the livelihoods they’re trying to build for themselves”: http://bit.ly/Oxfam
MPs views on Welfare reform: http://bit.ly/MPsonwelfarereform
The children are our future and as a society wwe have to positively invest in them on all levels so we can secure a healthy world for all our sakes. At the end of the day we can not blame the children because in doing that we relinguish our responsibilities not only to the children and their future but to outselves. So just make a difference by always acknowledging and implementing our adult responsiilities.