Child poverty has risen by a third in London since 2010

TUC analysis shows the number of children living in poverty in London has risen from 397,500 in 2010 to 523,700 in 2023

London has seen a 32% rise in child poverty for working households, according to new analysis from the Trades Union Congress (TUC).

The analysis shows that for households with at least one parent in work, the number of children living in poverty in London rose from 397,500 in 2010 to 523,700 in 2023 – an increase of 126,200 or 32%.

More than one in four (28.4%) children in working households in London are now growing up in poverty.

The TUC says a “toxic combination” of stagnant wages, increasing job insecurity and cuts to social security has had a “devastating impact” on family budgets.

Real wages are still worth less today than they were in 2008. And the TUC estimates that if wages had risen to their pre-financial crisis trend in 2010, the average worker would be more than £14,000 a year better off.

Separate analysis by the TUC shows that the number of people in insecure jobs rose by almost a million during the Tories’ tenure, to a record 4.1 million.

TUC spokesman Sam Gurney said: “No child in London should have to grow up in poverty.

“But under the Tories we have seen a huge increase in the number of working families pushed into hardship.

“A toxic combination of stagnant wages, increasing job insecurity and cuts to social security has had a devastating impact on family budgets.

“We urgently need an economic reset and a government that will make work pay. Reducing child poverty must be a priority in the coming years.”

The figures used are for the government’s relatively low income measure of child poverty, with a household income threshold set at 60% of median income after housing costs. The analysis uses the UK Family Resources Survey (FRS) to estimate child poverty. This is the same source that the UK government uses in its official poverty statistics on households below average income (HBAI).

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