Derry Child poverty highest in North

A special meeting of Derry City and Strabane District Council has discussed Child Poverty.

The meeting took place on Thursday, February 22, and received a presentation from Ms Mairead McCafferty (Chief Executive) and Ms Alex Tennant (Head of Policy and Participation) in the office of the NI Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY).

The NICCY presentation can be read HERE.

According to NICCY, there are around 95,000 children in poverty in the North – more than one in five (21%).

Child Poverty levels are generally higher in Derry City and Strabane than the Northern Ireland average.

Most children in poverty live in households with working parents. Children born poor statistically have fewer years of good health (women: 15.1 years and men: 11.2 years) and live shorter lives (women: 5.1 years and men: 7.3 years).

Beginning the discussion, following the NICCY presentation, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council Patricia Logue raised Holiday Hunger Payments.

Mayor Logue asked Ms McCafferty and Ms Alex Tennant if the provision of Holiday Hunger Payments should be given to parents of all children who are in child poverty, not just those on free school meals. 

Ms McCafferty said this was an issue NICCY had been examining.

She said: “We have been sitting on the Anti Poverty Strategy co-design group with the Department for Communities.

“We were hearing from some of the groups there were families who were working but were in receipt of no benefits and were not eligible for free school meals.

“We asked the statisticians to look at this and they found that only around a third of children in poverty were eligible for free school meals because the measure just really isn’t a great proxy for poverty.

“One of the main reasons for families being excluded from free school meals was that they were working and they weren’t eligible for other benefits, which would passport them into free school meals entitlement.

“We think that needs to be corrected. The free schools meals entitlement needs to be amended to make sure every child in poverty is eligible for it.

“Following from that, we do think free school meals and holiday payments have to be returned again, to our families with children in poverty.”

Cllr Shaun Harkin said any level of child poverty was disgraceful.

He said: “It is a measure of our society, in terms of its ability to take care of its citizens, its residents and its ability to care for everyone.

“The fact we have almost 100,000 children here in the North of Ireland living in poverty is an absolute disgrace. It makes me, and I’m sure everybody else in here, extremely angry.

“Here we are, in supposedly one of the richest societies on the planet, and we have nearly 100,000 children living in poverty and, in our district we have more than 9,000 children living in poverty -  higher than the average for the North.

“This is infuriating because children don’t get to decide where they are born, yet so much of their lives is actually determined by what class they are born into.

“We know this hits Catholic children, Protestant children, children that are in families which don’t identify with any of the main traditions here.

“Child poverty is something everybody should be very concerned about and very much wanting action to be taken on.”

Cllr Harkin said he was infuriated by the NICCY presentation because it illustrated there had been “no change in decades”.

“Many anti-poverty strategies have gone through Stormont and none of it has been implemented and none of whatever has been implemented has actually addressed fundamentally the levels of child poverty in our society.”

Cllr Rory Farrell described poverty as a burning issue right across the North.

“Poverty and child poverty is concerning. We have nearly 100,000 children living in households experiencing poverty and closer to home there are over 9,000 children across this council area who are living in households experiencing poverty.

“That is 9,000 children in this council area who do not have access to the basics, the essentials, who are not getting the best start in life.

“We live in the UK. It is a member of the G7, the sixth richest country in the world and for that to be happening in a very, very well off country is an absolute scandal.

“It is a symptom of a broken society. We haven’t had a government here for a number of years and the key focus for the New Executive should be to address and eradicate poverty.”

Cllr Paul Gallagher said he thought the NICCY presentation had been “weak”.

“I don’t think that it will go anywhere near addressing the real issues,” he said. “Mitigation factors have been mentioned going as far back as ‘Fresh Start’. Mitigation doesn't work in addressing child poverty. It only facilitates it.

“We see Government departments that people are knocking on their door needing help and support and they are being told to go to a food-bank. They are getting handed out the addresses of foodbanks, those are the mitigation factors.”

Cllr Aisling Hutton said the restoration of Government meant there was an opportunity for the “focus to be put on the child strategy at central government level”.

“Poverty presents in the form of addiction, family breakdown. it presents to us as poverty of education and poverty of health.

“The number of people with chronic illnesses - being diagnosed with diabetes [is high].

“Poverty is a minefield. At the minute there is a housing crisis in this city and people aren’t living in proper homes so they are not focused enough,” added Cllr Hutton.

Alderman Niree McMorris (DUP) said poverty knew no boundaries.

“It goes across the board and has many different facets. We need to keep focused and get to the bottom of what is going on in our own communities. 

“There needs to be a long term strategy in how we tackle child poverty.”

Cllr Gary Donnelly differed with Ald McMorris saying that poverty knew “class boundaries”.

“The people that are being hurt in this are the working class, and that is the working class of all communities,” he said. “This [NICCY] report should not be a shock to any proper councillor or alderman doing their job.

“Some of the conversations I have been having this week are with people saying their elected reps wouldn’t know.

“Stormont is up and running. Let’s see what they are going to do. People can’t blame the Brits any more. They lauded Stormont. They have it open. Step up to the plate.”

Following lengthy discussion, Council unanimously passed a motion proposed by Cllr Shaun Harkin, which read: “Council will write to the Secretary of State, the Executive Office and the relevant Executive Ministers for an outline on the immediate steps they plan to take to eradicate child poverty.

“Council will request a meeting with the relevant Stormont Executive Ministers and department officials to discuss above average levels of child poverty in the Derry City and Strabane District Council area and what specific and targeted actions they plan to take.

“Council will write to the Department for Communities Minister Gordon Lyons requesting an outline on plans to implement actions addressing poverty and inequality, with a focus on addressing child poverty.”

An amendment proposed by Cllr Farrell was subsequently added and approved.

It read: “Council will write to the NI Executive asking that the Anti-Poverty Strategy be published and implemented in the near future, and that budget required for delivery is ring fenced.”