Child poverty is becoming a problem of working families, a problem of low wages and insecure work. This might be the most disturbing of all the data in this report. Too often does one hear the glib remark from more conservative commentators ‘get a job’ in response to struggling families hopeful of change. It’s clear that ‘getting a job’ is no guarantee of any security. A lot of the parents of these children are working very hard to provide for their families yet still coming up short in extremely difficult conditions. Poverty is of course not just about income it also means that people are excluded in some way from a standard of living and way of life that the majority regard as acceptable.
This report is made up of several papers from individual authors reflecting on the extent and impact of child poverty in Northern Ireland.