Areas in West Midlands have some of highest rates of child poverty in UK, new figures show

New figures published in a report by End Child Poverty on levels of child poverty reveal that certain areas in the West Midlands have some of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK.

End Child Poverty is a campaign set up to streamline the work of various groups, with the shared aim of ending child poverty by 2020.

Their recent report highlights that Birmingham has an average child poverty rate of 37.4% and Coventry has an average 31% of children living in poverty. The report also showed a great disparity in child poverty across the West Midlands, with some children living much further below the poverty line than others in this area.

Ever year, the Centre for Research in Social Policy uses the best local data available to provide estimates of the number of children in poverty in each ward, local authority and parliamentary constituency in the UK.

Three local authorities in the West Midlands; Birmingham, Sandwell and Wolverhampton, appeared in the top 20 local authorities with the highest levels of child poverty across the UK.

One local authority in the West Midlands, Birmingham, was ranked sixth worst in the UK for child poverty statistics. In the constituency of Ladywood in Birmingham, almost half of children are estimated to live in poverty.

Households are considered to be living in poverty if their household income (adjusted to account for household size), is less than 60% of the average. All poverty rates are calculated after housing costs have been taken into account.

The local authorities with the lowest levels of child poverty were shown to have figures of between 10-14%; none of those featured in the top 20 lowest child poverty nation-wide ranking were from the West Midlands area.

Three local authorities in the West Midlands; Birmingham, Sandwell and Wolverhampton, appeared in the country-wide ranking of the top 20 local authorities with the highest levels of child poverty across the UK. These figures suggest that more action should be taken to reduce levels of child poverty in the local area.

The results also showed a great disparity between various areas surrounding Warwick University, including Leamington Spa, Coventry and Kenilworth.

The results also showed a great disparity between various areas surrounding Warwick University, including Leamington Spa, Coventry and Kenilworth, where high percentages of university students live.

Whilst on average 31% Coventry’s children live below the poverty line, only 16.36% do in Warwick and Leamington Spa, and an even lower 13.27% in Kenilworth and Southam.

Warwick University has a number of schemes in place in order to widen participation of under-represented schoolchildren from the surrounding area at university.

In particular, the Warwick Sutton Scholars scheme is a 2-year programme for highly able Year 8 and 9 students from nonselective state schools across the West Midlands, who come from backgrounds under-represented in higher education, designed to reach out and encourage pupils to consider university in the future.