Nursery World - Fall-out from poverty costs 25bn a year

Child poverty causes extreme hardship for some families but is also damaging the UK's economic potential to the tune of 25 billion a year, according to a new report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

The report, Estimating The Costs of Child Poverty, said research hasshown that 12bn extra social spending is required for low-incomefamilies, including more money on law and order because of 'poor familyfunctioning', which may lead to a higher rate of anti-socialbehaviour.

The JRF study suggested a further 2bn is spent on extra benefitswhile child poverty reduces gross domestic product by 11bn -3 billion of which would have gone to the Treasury intaxation.

Donald Hirsch, JRF poverty adviser and author of the report, said,'Child poverty imposes huge costs on those affected but it is alsocostly to us all. Getting rid of child poverty will not be cheap, butthis report shows that large amounts are spent on paying for thefall-out. This could be used for preventing it in the first place.'

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