The Environmental Audit Committee highlighted 2017 Unicef figures showing 19% of children under 15 in the UK live with adults who struggle to buy food.

It says ministers have failed to recognise and respond to the problem.
The government says the number of children living in workless households is at a record low.

But MPs say the number of people without reliable access to affordable, nutritious food – or food insecure – is “significant and growing”, with the unemployed, sick or those with children most likely to be affected.
The committee wants to see the appointment of a new minister with “responsibility and accountability for combating hunger and food insecurity within the UK”.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies found that George Osborne’s decision to freeze income eligibility thresholds will leave one in five families facing the loss of all or some of the payments.

Six years to the day since the former Chancellor introduced his austerity crackdown, the number of those affected has surged by a third, the IFS analysis discovered.

Labour’s John McDonnell pounced on the figures as proof of the continuing impact of Osborne’s cuts programme, telling HuffPost UK that it was further evidence for the need to back Labour’s Budget amendment on Tuesday to review child poverty and equality levels.

Child benefit was a ‘universal’ benefit until the Tories decided in 2012 to severely restrict eligibility to exclude any household with someone earning above £50,000 a year.

But the IFS study found that failing to increase the threshold in line with inflation – while increasing higher rate tax thresholds – has dragged many more middle income families into the cuts.

“For the first time, significant numbers of families without a higher-rate taxpayer will lose some Child Benefit,” it said.

Based on current earnings growth, it estimates that 60,000 families without anyone earning £50,000 will lose out in 2021–22, doubling to 120,000 such families in 2022–23.

Child benefit is currently worth £1,079 per year for the first child and £714 for each subsequent one.

The IFS said that in its first full financial year of operation (2013-14), the new policy meant that 13% of families with children, or around a million, lost at least some of the benefit as a result of the policy, with around 700,000 losing all of it.

In 2019-20, it estimates that the share of families with children who are affected will be 18%, or 1.4 million, of whom a million will have lost all of their entitlement.

“In other words, the number of families with children who are affected will have risen by about 36%, or 370,000, in just six years.

“What cannot be justified is to have an ever-increasing proportion of families exposed to the policy over time, with the increase determined by the rise in prices since 2013.

One in six pensioners is now living in poverty as a result of declining home ownership, soaring rents and the benefits freeze, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has warned. Pensioner poverty is rising, having fallen steadily for nearly two decades, the charity said. The figures prompt fears that many pensioners will be forced to choose between paying for heating and buying food this winter, as benefits remain frozen below inflation for the third year in a row.

The foundation’s chief executive, Campbell Robb, said: “Pensioner poverty is a problem that we thought had gone away.”

The incidence had halved over 20 years, but began rising again in 2012-13. By 2016-17, 16% of pensioners were living in poverty, rising to 31% among those in social housing and 36% among private renters. Poverty here is “relative poverty” – an income of less than 60% of the median among pensioners, after housing costs.

Robb said: “For middle-aged people who have been struggling over the past few years, who don’t have many savings and don’t own their own home, the prospect of being a pensioner is very challenging.” The “golden age” when people enjoyed rising home-ownership and well-paid work was coming to an end, he added. About 20% of all pensioners rent their home, and the proportion is growing.

The problem is compounded by the benefits freeze, in place since 2016. “As rent goes up faster than housing benefit, pensioners have a huge gap to fill,” Robb said. “This tips people into poverty, and forces them to choose between food and heating.”

Figures published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies this year reveal that relative poverty among pensioners has risen in the past five years, while “absolute poverty” – an income of less than 60% of what the median of the general population was in 2010-11 – has fallen by just 1%. By comparison, absolute pensioner poverty fell by 12% between 2002-03 and 2007-08, and by 3% between 2007-08 and 2011-12.