More than a quarter of children living in poverty in Oxford

Data collated by the End Child Poverty Coalition reveals that, in the run up to March 2020, ahead of lockdown, a total of 7,061 children were in families below the breadline in Oxford.

This equates to 26 per cent of all children living in the city living in poverty – a small decrease over the last five years.

But the city’s council has said there are ‘still too many are living in deprivation’.

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It is also uncertain yet how the pandemic will affect the number of people living in poverty in the city in the long term.

According to one food bank operator in the city, there was an initial boom in demand for aid when lockdown began in March, an indicator that more people are unable to afford the basics.

Jane Benyon, of the Community Emergency Foodbank Oxford, said: “Demand went up dramatically for us to begin with.”

However, Ms Benyon said since the first lockdown finished this initial demand had fallen away, something which she attributed to community aid.

Jane Benyon. Picture: Ed Nix

She said: “What has happened I think is there is a large number of organisations out there which are helping in many ways. Certainly in the summer we had very few families referred to us.

"I think because the government food voucher scheme had a dramatic effect then.”

During October half term, the foodbank founder said she expected to see an increase on the usual 40 to 50 weekly deliveries her charity makes at the moment, but this did not happen.

Businesses across Oxfordshire rallied to help needy children and their families with food this half term thanks to the campaign by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.

The End Child Poverty coalition, which commissioned the nationwide report into child poverty, combined information from the Department for Work and Pensions with local housing costs to produce new estimates for low-income families – those earning less than 60 per cent of the median income.

The analysis shows 7,061 children living in low-income families in Oxford in 2018-19.

This means 26 per cent of all those aged 16 and under in the city are living in poverty, though this was a decrease on 2014-15, when it was 28.1 per cent.

Oxford’s child poverty rate is slightly higher than the regional average for the rest of South East England, which is 25 per cent.

But the figures show no improvement in child poverty rates across the South East since 2014-15.

An Oxford City Council spokesman said: “Last year’s Indices of Deprivation figures from the Government showed that relative poverty and deprivation across the city had reduced over the last four years, although still too many are living in deprivation.

"There are complex issues to tackle and the city council has invested millions in community facilities and activities to help the most deprived neighbourhoods, including community centres, leisure centres, and community grants.”

Marcus Rashford has campaigned for the Government to extend its free school meals support in holidays

The most deprived areas of the city include Blackbird Leys, Rosehill and Barton.

Programmes the council is spearheading to alleviate poverty include simple things like investing in parks to make sure young people have green outdoor areas they can visit for free.

Others are more complex, like the Community Impact Zone in East Oxford, which sees council run classes and activities to give people living in deprivation more opportunity from a young age.

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The council spokesman added: “We know the pandemic has impacted on the poorest the hardest, with greater impact on jobs and health, bigger attainment gaps from lost schooling, and more housing insecurity.

“We don’t at this stage have estimates for the numbers affected, but we have strong community links through our locality hubs and youth ambition teams and are working with those affected where we can.

“Government funding for local services to respond to the pandemic is welcome but will not cover the full cost to Councils of supporting our communities through this crisis.”

Oxfordshire County Council has also recently started work on a public health scheme to improve life expectancy in the most deprived areas of Oxford.

The End Child Poverty coalition is calling on the Government to recognise the scale of the problem and its impact on children’s lives.

It’s chairwoman, Anna Feuchtwang, said: "The children affected are on a cliff edge, and the pandemic will only sweep them further into danger.

"An ambitious plan to put this shameful situation right would be transformational for millions of children."