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  • 2 in 5 key worker households in the North East have children living in poverty
  • Over 70,000 children with key worker parents are living below the breadline, research shows
  • Poverty levels “likely to get worse” as ministers hold down pay
  • Key workers in the public sector facing another year of real-terms pay cuts

The North East has the highest rate of child poverty in key worker households in the UK, new TUC research has revealed today (Friday).

The research, which uses the government definition for key workers, shows that 2 in 5 (41%) of key worker households have children living in poverty in the region.

The number of North East kids growing up in poverty in key worker households has increased by 18,000 over the past two years to 70,000 in 2022 – a rise of 34%.

Worse set to come

The TUC warned child poverty rates among key worker households are likely to get worse.

Ministers have announced another of year of real-terms pay cuts for key workers in the public sector.

The union body says this will have a devastating impact on frontline workers after a brutal decade of pay freezes and cuts:

  • Hospital porters’ real pay will be down by £200 this year 
  • Maternity care assistants’ real pay will be down by £600 this year 
  • Nurses’ real pay will be down by £1,100 this year
  • Paramedics’ real pay will be down by over £1,500 this year 

And ministers are calling for wages to be held down for key workers in the private sector too.

The TUC says the additional support announced by the Treasury this year to help families with energy bills will be offset by cuts to real-terms pay and other rising living costs.

Risk of recession

The TUC says government calls for widespread pay suppression will reduce household spending and demand as the UK teeters on the brink of recession.

The union body highlighted how at the same time key workers are being told to tighten their belts, city bonuses are rocketing.

TUC analysis published in June revealed that bonuses in the financial and insurance sector grew by 27.9% over the last year, six times faster than average wages in the same period, which grew by 4.2%.

Support needed for key worker families

The TUC is calling on the government to guarantee decent living standards by:

  • Raising the national minimum wage immediately.
  • Giving all key workers a fair pay rise that meets the cost of living.
  • Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff.
  • Boosting universal credit to 80% of the real Living Wage.
  • Significantly increasing benefit payments to children and removing the two-child limit within social security.

TUC Regional Secretary Liz Blackshaw said:

“Our key workers got us through the pandemic. The very least this great workforce deserve is to be able to provide for their families.

“But this government continues to lock working households into poverty and ministers’ provocative decisions to hold down pay are just exacerbating widespread hardship across our region.

“After the longest wage squeeze in 200 years we urgently need to get more money in the pockets of working families and reduce the increasing need for foodbanks and other forms of crisis and short-term support.

“These demands are simply to give people the resources to get through this cost of living crisis and inject much-needed spending into our economy.”

Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Kim McGuinness said:

“Our key workers saved this country during the pandemic and they deserve to see that work reflected in their pay packets. They often served at great personal risk, with police officers and staff routinely exposed to covid in order to keep us safe.

“It is shameful that key workers in one of the richest countries in the world are being forced into poverty by a Government that simply does not value public service. They have gone from working on the front line to being on the breadline.

“As the cost of living crisis gets worse we’ve seen strike action across the region as workers feel they are left with no option but industrial action in the fight for fair pay. The Government needs to act now to show it is prepared to back the workers that keep this country going.”

Chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission Anna Turley said:

“Over the last few years of the pandemic our key workers have kept this country going - caring for the sick, delivering babies and ensuring we all had food on our tables.

“The country owes them a great debt of thanks. But instead, these figures from the TUC show the depressing reality of low pay for so many of these heroes who are trying to look after their own families.

“That any child of a key worker is growing up in poverty shows the system is broken, but yet again it is children in the North East suffering the most from low pay and disadvantage.

“This must be a priority for the government so the children of key workers can have the start in life they deserve.”

Editors note

Children in poverty in key worker households by UK nation and region in 2022

Region

Total number of children in key worker families

Number of children in poverty in key worker families

Percentage of children in poverty in key worker families

North East

170,586

70,311

41.2%

North West

600,325

174,495

29.1%

Yorkshire & the Humber

434,335

47,659

11.0%

East Midlands

426,335

49,150

11.5%

West Midlands

396,756

93,156

23.5%

East of England

490,577

115,563

23.6%

London

661,487

189,691

28.7%

South East

811,614

125,848

15.5%

South West

362,539

43,287

11.9%

Wales

249,789

22,285

8.9%

Scotland

445,826

37,005

8.3%

Northern Ireland

146,353

20,787

14.2%

Total

5,196,522

989,237

19.0%

- Methodology: Landman Economics combined information from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Family Resource Survey (FRS) for 2020/21 to calculate the number of children living in key worker households and how many of those households are in poverty, taking account of changes in real terms pay between 2020 and 2022 for public and private sector workers using figures from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). 

- All figures are based on household income after housing costs. Note that the 2020/21 FRS is based on a smaller sample size than previous years of FRS due to the difficulty of interviewing households during the Covid-19 pandemic, and poverty estimates are accordingly subject to higher degrees of uncertainty than in previous years. 

- The analysis does include the impact of the reduction in Council Tax announced by the government in February 2022 in response to the cost-of-living crisis and the one-off grants announced by the Chancellor in May 2022.

-Under the government’s own definition of a key worker, 10.6 million of those employed (33% of the total workforce) are in key worker occupations and industries.

About the TUC: The Trades Union Congress (TUC) exists to make the working world a better place for everyone. We bring together the 5.5 million working people who make up our 48 member unions. We support unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living.

Contacts:

TUC press office 
media@tuc.org.uk  
020 7467 1248 

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