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What more can be done about child poverty?
Last updated: 31 March 2009
Standards of living may have risen but more than one in four children in Wales still lives in poverty. Research suggests poor children are more likely to experience illness and delayed development, to suffer accidents, and become pregnant as teenagers. It's a serious problem and one which the Welsh Assembly Government says it's committed to tackling. But how does poverty affect the everyday lives of families in Wales?
In 2000, BBC Wales's current affairs programme Week In Week Out spent time filming a family in the Cynon Valley whose income was below the national average. For a special programme broadcast on 26 March 2009, Betsan Powys went back to find out how their lives turned out and their future was likely to hold. The programme was shown as part of a two-week BBC Wales childhood season in March 2009 but you can still watch extracts on the website.
Wellbeing
Facts and figures
- 29% of children in Wales live in poverty now compared to 36% in 1996-7.
- Two-fifths of children in low-income households are in lone parent families.
- Children are much more likely to live in low-income households than adults.
Source: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
