Welsh child poverty rate ‘national disgrace’ says Oxfam Cymru
Oxfam Cymru has called on the Welsh Government to urgently address spiralling levels of child poverty in Wales.
New figures released by the charity today reveal that one in five (21%) people in Wales live in poverty.
The statistics also reveal that more than one in four (28%) of children in Wales live in poverty.
Oxfam Cymru has urged the Welsh Government to produce a new plan backed by political will and resources to tackle the country’s high child poverty rate.
Responding to the statistics, Sarah Rees, Head of Oxfam Cymru, said: “The pandemic and cost of living crisis have dealt
a devastating double blow to the poorest in our society, as these disturbing statistics demonstrate.
“It’s a national disgrace that across Wales, even in some of the most affluent areas, a large proportion of children live in poverty.
“We know that the ability to end child poverty isn’t solely in Welsh Ministers’ gift, but they must use all of the powers at their disposal to transform the lives of the thousands of children growing up in poverty across Wales.
“A key area of reform is the country’s unaffordable and often inaccessible childcare system, which currently leaves too many parents locked out of paid work and forced into poverty.
“Access to free, good quality childcare for all children from the age of six months should sit at the heart of the Welsh Government’s next child poverty strategy: it’s basic economic infrastructure.
“Poverty isn’t inevitable: failure to tackle it is a political choice. Welsh Ministers must choose wisely and build a fairer future for all of us.”
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Surely thats down to the English government seeing as THEY are in charge of the UK economy.
Oh, you said the quite part out load…The English can’t have people knowing that they pull the strings and can virtually decide how well off, or Poor Wales is/Becomes
This report from Oxfam should be copied to Sunak with the question how does it sit with his comment that “Wales is a thriving part of the UK” and Mark Drakeford and Vaughan Gething asked actually how close do they expect to work with Westminster? On a ‘we say and you do’ basis or are Welsh Labour going to make representing the poorest child in Cymru as their starting point for any cooperation? When so much cash is swilling about it is hard to see the poor from the back of a limousine travelling in the elite lane or a… Read more »
And these shocking statistics sadly wont change until we are an independent nation with the powers to properly address the grinding poverty which has blighted Wales for so long
We have to go for independence but the first thing we have to do is getting rid of the unionist labour party that has run Wales into the ground
Well, poverty is a by-product I suppose of having your country pillaged of its resources for 500 years. Done covertly after the Tudor betrayal. Done while the powers that be in London shout “We are in it together”, and “We fought two World Wars Together” – Blah, Blah! I hope I live to see the day that the British of Cymru wake up and not only gain its rightful independence but also it’s rightful identity. Yma o Hyd!