The numbers are national. The doors we knock on are local.
What the UK’s latest child poverty figures mean for families in Sussex, Surrey and Kent
Child poverty in the UK is back in the headlines, and child poverty Sussex families live with every day is part of that story. New figures released this year show around 4 million children across the UK are living in poverty. Independent analysis from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation puts the number even higher, at 4.5 million, and rising for the third year running. That’s roughly 8 children in every classroom of 30.
Those are national numbers. But the child poverty Sussex, Surrey and Kent families face doesn’t look like the headlines. It looks like a mum quietly asking a teacher if there’s any spare uniform in the lost property box. It looks like a family who’ve never claimed anything in their life, working full time, still coming up short by the end of the month. These are the families who fly under the radar of formal support, and they’re exactly who we exist to find.
Child poverty isn’t just a headline figure. The official measure looks at whether a household’s income, after housing costs, falls below 60% of the UK’s average. It captures families on low pay, families where nobody works, and everything in between. What it can’t capture is what that actually looks like day to day: a birthday with no cake, a school trip quietly declined, a jumper handed down twice before it’s handed down again.
Child poverty Sussex: it doesn’t stop at the county line
Two thirds of working-age adults in poverty across the UK live in a household where someone has a job. Having work isn’t the safety net it used to be, and that’s as true across much of Surrey, Sussex and Kent as it is anywhere else. That’s the scale of it this year: 1,200 doors we want to knock on, each one a family who’s had a harder year than most.
How the UK is tackling child poverty
The Government published its first Child Poverty Strategy at the end of last year, aiming to lift 550,000 children out of poverty by 2030. The biggest single piece of this child poverty strategy is reversing the two-child limit on Universal Credit, alongside free school meals for all Universal Credit households and more funded breakfast clubs. For families facing child poverty Sussex, Surrey and Kent wide, those changes can’t come soon enough.
It’s a serious plan, and it’s not finished yet. Campaigners tracking the data say over 86,000 more children have been pushed into poverty by the two-child limit since it was announced, because the reversal hasn’t fully taken effect. Policy like this takes time to reach a kitchen table.
What child poverty looks like in Sussex, Surrey and Kent
From the outside, many of the towns and villages we work in look comfortable. That is part of the problem. Child poverty Sussex families experience rarely looks like the images people expect, and the families living with it are often the ones nobody thinks to ask about.
It is the child who stops bringing letters home about school trips because they already know the answer. The teenager who tells friends she doesn’t fancy the prom, when the truth is there’s no money for a dress or a ticket. The family whose car has failed its MOT, leaving a long walk or an unaffordable bus fare between home and school. The parents who skip meals so the children don’t have to.
Housing costs are a big part of the picture. Rents across the South East are among the highest in the country outside London, so a wage that sounds reasonable on paper can leave very little once the rent and bills are paid. A broken boiler, a cut in hours or a delayed benefit payment is all it takes to tip a household from just about coping into real hardship.
Many of these families fly under the radar. They don’t meet the threshold for formal support, they may never have asked for help before, and they are often too proud to ask now. That’s why our answer to child poverty Sussex families face is to work through the people who see them every day: teachers, family support workers, health visitors, GP surgeries and other local charities. They nominate the families, and we step in quickly with practical help.
That help is deliberately simple and short term. School uniforms and shoes. Help with the cost of school trips and residential holidays. Transport to school. A prom outfit so no one has to miss out. And at Christmas, a food delivery and presents for every child, chosen from their own wish list.
None of it solves the national picture, or child poverty Sussex wide, on its own. But for one family, on one doorstep, it can change what the next few weeks look like.
Which is exactly why we’re still knocking
While that plays out, the families we work with still need a Christmas dinner this December, a school uniform that fits, a trip they can afford. That’s not a criticism of the strategy, it’s just the gap we fill while it catches up. Fifteen years ago, our founder Darren knocked on the door of a 15 year old girl whose mum was struggling, and left a Christmas dinner box and a bottle of perfume. That’s still the job now, just at a bigger scale.
Knock on a door with us
If the national numbers made you wince, here’s where that feeling can go. Volunteer for the Christmas programme, donate to help us reach 1,200 doors this year, or just share this post so more people know families like this are closer than the statistics make them feel.
Make a donation
If you would like to help us reach 1,200 doors this year, every donation makes a real difference to a family close to home. Tackling child poverty Sussex families face starts with neighbours like you. Thank you for even considering it.
The Greenaway Foundation is a registered charity, no. 1187817.
