‘Bringing emotion and reality to the debate on child poverty.’: one conference attendee’s experience

Travelling to Labour conference as a ‘parent voice’ for a Child Poverty Action Group fringe event is a strange responsibility. I feel a need to speak up and out for the near 200 other parents on a low-income involved in the Changing Realities project of which I’m part. And I also feel a sense of duty to speak to my own personal experiences in order to bring some emotion – but also some everyday reality – to the urgent challenge of driving record rates of child poverty down.

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Daunting as it may be, it’s a honour to have been granted the opportunity to set out some thoughts on what we want to hear from Labour regarding child poverty this week. This is a pivotal few months ahead.  Conference, followed by a Child Poverty Strategy and a Budget (but not necessarily in that order). Three totemic moments in the policy cycle where the party has a chance to put money where mostly just kind words are coming from so far. 

Why does this matter so much to me and to families like me? I’m a single dad with two kids, a 10 year old daughter and a 7 year old son. While I’m not affected by the two child cap on benefits, I wouldn’t be doing my duty to my fellow parents in the Changing Realities project to not restate that the single quickest win in terms of lifting children out of poverty would be abolishing the two child cap. The fact that Nigel Farage has committed to it already gives Labour all the political cover they need to the point where one simply wonders ‘what are you waiting for’. An announcement on this at conference would bring the house down. 

For me personally, an issue I and others on the project have pushed for is expanding free childcare. Options include something ambitious like free after school clubs for all to match the new universal breakfast clubs, or just extending Universal Credit’s 85% childcare reimbursement to 100% as an important interim step.

At the very least, Labour should end the requirement for childcare to be paid up front in full then reimbursed. A model already exists for this and Labour could adopt the Childcare Grant Payment Service model used by Student Finance England where providers are invoiced directly for the 85%. Pushing this pressure off the backs of parents would remove the cash flow stress away from families like mine, already precariously juggling bill payment dates and pay days. 

The government, to their credit, have extended Free School Meals to all parents on Universal Credit and the new breakfast clubs will definitely make a big difference. They’re also raising the Standard Allowance for Universal Credit above inflation by £725 by 2029. But we should not forget that in opposition Labour – rightly – opposed the abolition of the Covid era £20 a week uplift in UC which was worth £315 more a year (in 2020!) than what is pledged now by 2029. The Changing Realities and IPPR joint report on child poverty calls for a more targeted £3.1bn investment in aligning the Standard Allowance for couples and single parent families. Again, there are choices for government but what we want to hear at conference are actions. 

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Child poverty, once falling year on year under the last Labour government, has now been rising now for 15 years. The Prime Minister has committed to seeing it fall under his tenure, and I understand Bridget Phillipson, now fighting for the Deputy Leader vacancy spot has pledged that action on child poverty is her moral mission.  This conference has to be a moment where he and his Cabinet colleagues give us more than a championing of micro-measures taken so far and make at least one big announcement to give us low-income parents hope for a meaningful Child Poverty Strategy later this autumn. 

As I sit on the train, I do feel hope that Labour will finally deliver, and offer some real and lasting help to the millions of families just like mine. It’s in their grasp to do this – let’s hope they make the right calls this week.

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