Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to tackle the level of child poverty in City of Durham constituency.

The Government is committed to reducing child poverty and supporting low-income families. In 2022/23 we will spend over £242 billion through the welfare system in Great Britain including £108 billion on people of working age.

With 1.25 million job vacancies across the UK, our focus is firmly on supporting people to move into, and progress in work. This approach is based on clear evidence about the importance of parental employment - particularly where it is full-time - in substantially reducing the risks of child poverty and in improving long-term outcomes for families and children. The latest available data on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, children in households where all adults were in work were around six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than children in a household where nobody works. In 2021, compared to 2010, there were nearly 1 million fewer workless households and almost 590,000 fewer children in workless households in the UK. In 2020/21, there were 200,000 fewer children in absolute poverty (before housing costs) than in 2009/10.

The Government publishes annual statistics on the number and proportion of children who are in low income families by local area, which can be found in the publication: Children in low income families: local area statistics 2014 to 2021 - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/children-in-low-income-families-local-area-statistics-2014-to-2021(opens in a new tab)“

This is on top of the support we have already provided by increasing the National Living Wage to £9.50 per hour and giving nearly 1.7 million families an extra £1,000 a year, on average, through our changes to the Universal Credit taper and work allowances. To further support parents to move into and progress in work, the government provides a range of childcare offers. For more information on what childcare support may be available, we encourage parents to use the Childcare Choices website.

The government understands the pressures people are facing with the cost of living and has taken further decisive action to support people with their energy bills. The Energy Price Guarantee is supporting millions of households with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear it will continue to do so from now until April next year. This is in addition to the over £37bn of cost of living support announced earlier this year which includes the £400 non-repayable discount to eligible households provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme.

The £37bn of support also includes the current Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support to those most in need for the period October 2022 - March 2023 and is being delivered by Upper Tier and Unitary Councils. In the case of Durham, the local authority has been allocated £4,676,099.65 for this period. The devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.