Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his department has made of trends in the level of child poverty in the Gillingham and Rainham constituency; and what steps his department is taking to reduce child poverty in that area.

Statistics on the number and proportion of children living in relative poverty, including in parliamentary constituencies, are published annually in the Children in low income families: local area statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2022-to-2025.

Our Child Poverty Strategy sets out immediate action to reduce child poverty while delivering the foundations for long-term change. This includes removing the Universal Credit two-child limit, which is expected to lift 450,000 children out of relative poverty in the final year of this Parliament. Taken alongside other measures, including extending Free School Meals to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit, the strategy will lift 550,000 children out of poverty in the final year of this Parliament, which is expected to lead to the largest reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began.

The Strategy is supported by wider investment in families, including over £30 million for breakfast clubs, measures to cap branded school uniform costs, the introduction of Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority, £600 million over three years for the Holiday Activities and Food programme, and expanded free childcare. We are also strengthening local efforts to tackle child poverty through community projects and family services, including the £500 million Better Futures Fund