Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the increase in absolute child poverty in (a) the North East and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber.

No assessment has been made of child poverty in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber for 2020/21. Given the impact of the pandemic on the size and quality of sample data, DWP statisticians concluded that for several of the breakdowns it would be difficult to make meaningful assessments of trends and changes in 2020/21 compared with the pre-Covid position. The Chief Statistician has therefore taken the decision not to publish additional breakdowns for regional child poverty in 2020/21.

The Government is committed to reducing 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 parents to move into, and progress in work, an approach which 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. 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.

To help people into work, including parents, our Plan for Jobs is providing broad ranging support for all Jobseekers with our Sector Based Work Academy Programmes (SWAP), Job Entry Targeted Support and Restart scheme. We are also extending the support Jobcentres provide to people in work and on low incomes. Through a staged roll-out, which started in April 2022, around 2.1 million low-paid benefit claimants will be eligible for support to progress into higher-paid work.

Around 1.9 million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for and claiming a free school meal, saving families around £400 per year. In addition, around 1.25 million more infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of universal infant free school meals. The National School Breakfast Provision programme (NSBP) is providing funding of up to £24 million in a two-year contract to continue our support for school breakfast provision until July 2023 supporting pupils in up to 2,500 schools that meet our criteria for levels of disadvantage.

The Government is also investing £200 million a year to continue the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, which benefitted over 600,000 children last summer, and we have increased the value of the Healthy Start Scheme by a third to £4.25 a week.

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 government’s Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £700 this winter, based on what energy price would’ve been under the current price cap – reducing bills by roughly a third. This support will be in place from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023. A review will be launched to consider more targeted measures to support households with their energy bills after this period. 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 also includes up to £650 in cost of living Payments (paid in 2 lump sums of £326 and £324) which have targeted support at around 8 million low-income households on means-tested benefits. In addition, 6 million eligible disabled people have received a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 and pensioner households will receive a one-off payment of £300 alongside the Winter Fuel Payment from this month.

In collaboration with Local Authorities we have a well-established system of hardship payments, including the Discretionary Housing Payments, available as a safeguard for if claimants demonstrate they cannot meet their immediate and most essential needs due to the rise in the cost of living. For those who require additional support, we extended the Household Support Fund in England, which will be providing up to £421m of support for 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 South Tyneside, the local authority has been allocated £1,484,854.01 for this period. The devolved administrations have been allocated £79 million through the Barnett formula as usual.