Child poverty

Meeting the minimum needs of a child up to age 18 now costs around £148,000 – equivalent to around £160 a week – according to an updated analysis published by the Child Poverty Action Group. The figure has risen by 4 per cent between 2012 and 2013.

The calculation is based on the 'minimum income standard' – the income needed in order to reach a minimum socially acceptable standard of living, based primarily on popular consensus. It is averaged for a child across all ages, and includes childcare costs and housing.

As many as nine per cent of children in London, or the equivalent of 74,000 children, may be suffering from inadequate food intake. That's one of the key findings of research conducted by Ipsos MORI for the Greater London Authority. The study involved interviews with over 500 parents and 500 children, at all income levels and across London, designed to understand the impact that hunger has on their lives.

Children from economically deprived families are more likely to be socially excluded as adults, finds a study from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

The study involved analysing data from more than 7,000 members of the 1970 British Cohort Study, and tracking six risk factors: poor physical and mental health; lack of emotional support from friends and family, and of trust in others; little or no interest or engagement in politics; having a low income, debts, or not having savings; limited access to good-quality public services; and being unemployed.

Over half a million more children will have been forced into poverty by 2015 as a result of the coalition government's public spending cuts and tax and benefit changes, according to a report from the official children's rights watchdog for England.

The report is based on an analysis, by Landman Economics, that uses microsimulation models to assess the likely impact on children living in different kinds of families – the first time, the watchdog says, this kind of analysis has been undertaken.