Nearly one in three children living in poverty as survey highlights public concern

Nation.Cymru staff

A survey by Public Health Wales found around eight in ten people think that living in poverty is very harmful to a child’s ability to eat healthy food (78 per cent) and live in a warm safe home (77 per cent).

It also found that around two thirds recognised that it is very harmful to a child’s physical health (69 per cent) and mental health (67 per cent).

The Time To Talk survey found that people in Wales support structural approaches to reducing child poverty. The action considered most effective, from a list seven actions, was improving housing affordability and quality, with 75 per cent thinking this would be very effective.

This was followed by improving access to secure jobs (73 per cent), making childcare more affordable and accessible (70 per cent), and government action to help reduce the cost of gas and electricity (70 per cent).

Taken together, these findings point to support for coordinated action across interconnected policy areas, recognising that child poverty cannot be reduced through action in any one area alone. Latest data from Department for Work and Pensions showed nearly one in three children in Wales in 2023-2024 were living in poverty, and around one in 10 were experiencing deep material deprivation, highlighting the scale and severity of the challenge facing families across the country.

This was reflected in survey findings, with 71 per cent of people saying they think child poverty is a big problem in Wales, and 42 per cent that they think it is a big problem in their local area.

The survey also suggests there is still work to do to build awareness of which families are more likely to experience poverty.

While many people correctly identified that some family types are more likely to live in poverty, a third or more were not aware that this includes families with three or more children, families where the mother is under 25, families from an ethnic minority background, or families with a child under one year old.

Deb Austin, Senior Policy Officer at Public Health Wales, said: “It’s clear that people in Wales see child poverty as an important issue that needs addressing, and that it is about more than income alone – it affects children’s health, development and well-being from the very start.

“To make progress, we need to work together across services and sectors to support families in a joined-up, preventative way. This includes the introduction of the Cynnal child payment pilot which aims to increase the money going into low-income families, and planned expansion of access to affordable, high-quality childcare so parents and carers can work.

“Alongside this, secure, good quality and affordable housing, good work and lowering the costs of essentials all play vital roles in reducing child poverty and its health harms. Giving every child the best start in life will help build a healthier, fairer Wales.”