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Hard as it may be to imagine, a 1/6th of all children in Chiswick are living in poverty according to latest Government figures.

The number rises to a quarter across of the whole of the Brentford and Isleworth parliamentary constituency.

Broken down into wards Chiswick Homefields 17%, Chiswick Riverside 15%, Southfield 17% and Turnham Green 14%, these measures of child poverty are based on a survey of family income and using tax credit data to give the percentages.

Local trends in unemployment to estimate recent changes in the number of children who are in poverty because their parents have lost their jobs were also used to update the tax credit data which is more than two years old.

Children are classified as being in poverty if they live in families in receipt of out of work benefits or in receipt of in-work tax credits where their reported income is less than 60 per cent of median income.

UK Facts and Figures:

• Nearly 4 million children are living in poverty in the UK (after housing costs)
• The proportion of children living in poverty grew from 1 in 10 in 1979 to 1 in 3 in 1998. Today, 30 per cent of children in Britain are living in poverty.
• The UK has one of the worst rates of child poverty in the industrialised world
• The majority (59 per cent) of poor children live in a household where at least one adult works.
• 40 per cent of poor children live in a household headed by a lone parent. The majority of poor children (57 per cent) live in a household headed by a couple.
• 38% of children in poverty are from families with 3 or more children.

http://www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/

March 22, 2011