Free childcare is key in addressing child poverty, advocacy group says

Deep income inadequacy among the poorest children “will continue ... and may increase” without “targeted and effective” measures, an umbrella NGO representing more than 100 organisations working with children warns.

The Children’s Rights Alliance says the Government response to the cost-of-living crisis experienced most harshly by the 5.2 per cent of children in consistent poverty has been “ad hoc” and hasn’t gone “far enough”.

The “single most important measure in addressing child poverty” would be the provision of “free, (or nearly free)” access to childcare “for parents living in consistent poverty,” it says in its first child poverty monitor. “What works is providing education, training, quality employment alongside quality childcare,” to empower mothers in particular to lift their families out of poverty.

Published on Wednesday, it also says benchmarking welfare rates to the cost of living, genuinely free primary and secondary education, and extending fuel allowance to the poorest working families are urgently needed policy changes.

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Children aged six to 11 have the highest rates of consistent poverty (9 per cent), followed by 8.8 per cent among 12- to 18-year-olds and 4.8 per cent among 0- to 4-year-olds. Of all children in consistent poverty the alliance says: “43 per cent are in deep poverty where household income is 50 per cent or less of median income.

“Households dependent on social welfare were already in receipt of inadequate income supports before the onset of substantial increases in the consumer price index.”

It continues: “Inaction on benchmarking of social welfare rates means that those dependent on such payments will continue to struggle to make ends meet.”

Among targeted measures there should be “extension of the fuel allowance to recipients of the working family payment [WFP]”. The WFP is a supplementary payment to families where a parent is working but on very low wages.

A range of social protection changes to better support single parents and their children — who experience the highest rates of poverty — are needed. The Department of Social Protection must ensure: rules around the one-parent family and job seekers transition payments do not disincentivise shared parenting, rules around the WFP do not discriminate against lone-parents, and information provided to lone parents by customer-service staff is accurate and consistent.

“A child-centred approach would ensure that rules are amended to ensure that the social welfare system would meet the best interest of the child,” says the monitor.

An analysis of OECD data “indicates that supporting parents from low-income families to participate in full-time employment is a critical objective in terms of significantly reducing child poverty,” it says.

“The State needs to provide free (or nearly free access to early childhood education and care, for example, a small contribution of no more than €10 for people on the lowest incomes) for parents living in consistent poverty. This would include those currently on welfare payments or in low-paid jobs.

“This is the single most important measure in addressing child poverty based on the evidence,” says the alliance.

Holiday hunger — where children in receipt of school meals do not get enough food when schools are closed — “remains a serious concern for children and young people,” says the alliance.

“In the UK, the establishment of holiday clubs in schools and communities in response to this issue ensured children got access to nutritious food but also the opportunity to engage in healthy activities.

“Parents need to be supported and empowered to feed their children sufficient nutritious food. While lower levels of education have been found to be a predictor of food poverty in the Irish context” the monitor notes: “socially disadvantaged groups display awareness of what constitutes healthy eating, yet are constrained primarily by affordability”.