A quarter of children in Swindon are living in poverty.
That is according to pressure group Joseph Rowntree Foundation's UK Poverty 2023 report.
However, Swindon Borough Council says it is working to different, lower figures put together by the government in its Public Health Outcomes Framework.
But even those figures say that more than one in 10 children in the borough is living in “absolute poverty” and 13.5 per cent are in “relative poverty”.
Relative poverty is defined as being in a household with less than 60 per cent of the median income, absolute poverty as a household with lower than 60 per cent of the median income established in 2010-2011- and is designed to find out whether incomes are keeping pace with inflation.
Children in absolute poverty are also included in the relative poverty figures.
Labour councillor Jim Robbins picked up on the figure when asking questions of the cabinet member for children’s services Coun Jenny Jefferies, asking her if it was a figure she recognised.
Coun Jefferies said it wasn’t familiar to her and the council’s director of social work Lisa Arthey said: “This is a national problem. One in five children in the country is affected.”
Using the Public Health England measures used by the borough council, Swindon is below the England average on both types of poverty.
PHE says there are 15.1 per cent of children in absolute poverty and 18.5 per cent in relative poverty.
Ms Arthey said the council was working with schools to try and identify the issue: “Schools have indicated they are concerned about more children are having problems.
“We [have been] given a grant increased by 10 per cent to schools to allow head teachers to identify those who might need to receive free school meals.”
Ms Arthey added that the Swindon voluntary group Safe Families, which works with families experiencing difficulties, and which was due to have its funding from the borough council cut in April, had its contract extended for two months until the end of May.
Coun Robbins asked: “What happens at the end of May with the work Safe Families is doing? It’s very highly thought of.”
Coun Jefferies said the work would be continued in-house by council staff: “We are aware of what’s happening, there’ll be no loss of our offer, it will be picked up by our organisation.”
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