A headteacher has called for children to be fed as a priority as shocking figures show that Oldham kids are more likely to live in poverty than nearly anywhere in the UK.
Glyn Potts, headteacher at Newman RC College, said the situation felt ‘Dickensian’ and that there needed to be a greater focus on making sure children were fed and warm.
Oldham Foodbank also echoed the headteacher’s concerns, adding that it had seen a large increase in the number of children it supported.
The new Department for Work and Pensions figures show Oldham children are more likely to live in poverty than nearly anywhere else in the country, behind only Birmingham, City of London, Nottingham, and Leicester, which had the highest.
However, the DWP said figures for the City of London should be treated with caution, due to the low population in the square-mile centre of the nation’s capital.
More than two-thirds of children in one part of the borough were living in poverty as of the year ending April 2022.
Overall the data reveals 21,079 children in Oldham were living in relative poverty in the year ending April 2022.
It meant 38.5 per cent of children in the area were in a family whose income was below 60 per cent of average household income and claimed child benefit and at least one other household benefit.
Overall, it was up from 36.5 per cent of children who were living in poverty in 2020-21 and up nearly 10 percentage points from 28.9 per cent seen in 2014-15, when comparable records began.
Oldham’s figures were nearly double the rate across the UK, where 20.1 per cent, or 2.47 million children, are living in relative poverty.
Children pushed to extremities of poverty
Mr Potts said: “We’re certainly seeing far more children pushed towards the extremities of poverty, and on occasions it almost feels a little bit Dickensian with some of the stories of some of the families we’re working with.
“It’s not simply those families whose parents perhaps don’t have employment, it can equally be those families who are in jobs, and are working very hard but are just not able to make ends meet, and therefore the cuts to that kind of provision are really hurting them.”
Coldhurst worst affected in borough
Of Oldham’s children, 15,813 were in absolute poverty as their family's income was lower than 60 per cent of the median income established in 2010-2011 – accounting for 28.9 per cent of kids in the area.
Across the UK, 1.89 million children, or 15.3 per cent, were in absolute poverty.
About 18.7 per cent of children were in relative poverty and 15.1 per cent in absolute poverty the year before.
Leicester had the highest proportion of children aged under 16 in relative low income families (41.7 per cent) within the UK, and the London borough of Richmond upon Thames had the lowest, at just 5.4 per cent.
Broken down to smaller areas, Coldhurst in Oldham was one of the council wards with the highest rates of relative child poverty in the country.
The highest level in Oldham, more than two-thirds of children (67.7 per cent) in Coldhurst live in poverty.
Mr Potts said Newman College had about 200 children from the Coldhurst area at its school, adding: “Our experience of them, not just there but at South Chadderton, some areas of Failsworth, Werneth, and St Mary’s, we’re seeing children coming from those wards as ones who are significantly challenged in terms of deprivation.
“That impacts on a lot of things, it impacts on their mental wellbeing, it impacts on their outlooks for the future, but equally their engagement at school.
“If we look at attendance of children from our attendance data, we’re seeing that children from areas of higher deprivation are more likely to be absent from school, and that just perpetuates the challenges in those areas.
“We know that the situation in Oldham is that the NHS is struggling, social care is absolutely at breaking point, schools in Oldham are all oversubscribed and are doing their best. We need more than educational investment, we need social investment as well.
“That starts with making sure that every child isn’t going to go hungry, firstly, then we can build on that and do things like ‘glasses for classes,’ which makes sure that every young person has their eyes tested in primary school, which is often a factor for being unable to read.
“All of these social enterprises build in the fabric of structures we need to give young people the best possible chance, but it starts with making sure they can be fed, and warm.”
Foodbank echoes concerns
Oldham Foodbank echoed Mr Potts’ concerns and said things have only got worse since the Government data.
Tom Lewis Hood, organisational development coordinator at the food bank, said: “Oldham Foodbank has seen large increases in demand over the recent years.
“When we look at the period from October 2022 to now, there has been a 55 per cent increase in the number of people we have supported since the similar period October 2021 - March 2022.
“In that number, we also saw a 67.1 per cent increase in the amount of children we supported (5423 in total) in families receiving emergency food parcels.”
Government ‘commited to eradicating poverty’
A Government spokesperson said they are “committed to eradicating poverty and supporting those in need, and our actions have helped ensure there are nearly two million fewer people in absolute poverty than there were in 2009-10”.
They said the latest figures “reflect the country coming out of the pandemic and accompanying rising prices” and that record levels of support have been provided through cost-of-living payments, the Household Support Fund and the Energy Price Guarantee which “will continue to hold down people’s energy bills”.
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