Recent years have seen a divergence in welfare in Scotland compared to other UK nations. However, in Scotland a significantly different approach has been adopted. The Scottish Government has used its ...

An impossible move? Households’ experiences of trying to escape the UK’s benefit cap

Examining the impact of the Scottish Child Payment in comparative perspective

New analysis shows why the two-child limit and benefit cap must be scrapped to tackle child poverty.

This is the first in a series of Annual Policymaker Reports that summarise key findings from across the Safety Nets project for policymaker audiences. Each series has five reports containing key infor...

This project will explore the extent of the devolution of social security within the UK and the realities, risks, and opportunities this poses for families with dependent children.

The latest Household Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics show that poverty continues to affect millions of children in the UK, with 4.5 million affected by poverty during 2023-2024, an increase of 100,00 on the year before. These figures should shame us all, and must be examined alongside the UK Government’s proposals to take £4.8 billion in social security support from some of the most vulnerable, and indeed poorest, among us. The Government’s own Impact Assessment suggests that 50,000 more children will be pulled into relative poverty as a direct result of these changes. But another way is possible. For the past five years, almost 200 parents and carers living on a low-income from all four nations of the UK have been working alongside researchers at the University of York and Child Poverty Action Group to document everyday life in poverty and to push for change. The project started life as Covid Realities in the pandemic and became Changing Realities in a cost-of-living crisis that has never gone away. In our work together, we have contributed real-time evidence to policymakers, challenged harmful media narratives, and developed co-produced recommendations for change.

Many parents we spoke to had resorted to using foodbanks or had cut back on food spending.

On 4th February 2025, Family Finances held a House of Lords Roundtable, hosted by Baroness Ruth Lister, to explore the impact of cash transfers to families with children.

Ahead of the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy, which promises to bring about “an enduring reduction in child poverty”, this report looks at what might be needed to achieve this welcome goal in the ...