50% of children in Rochdale’s most deprived area are living in poverty

28% of children in the borough of Rochdale live in poverty, while the Milkstone and Deeplish ward contains the highest child poverty rates in the borough with half of all children there living below the breadline, new data reveals.

As the UK’s cost of living crisis deepens, more and more people – including children – are finding it difficult to make ends meet.

Greater Manchester Poverty Action’s 2022 Poverty Monitor has discovered that the average child poverty rate across Greater Manchester is 25%, while Rochdale is 3% higher at 28%. The statistic that half of children in Milkstone and Deeplish ward are living in poverty is shocking.

As energy costs soar, families across Greater Manchester are having to choose between heating their homes and eating. GMPA’s Poverty Monitor shows that 15% of households in Rochdale are in fuel poverty and 12% are struggling with food insecurity – figures that are expected to increase in October when energy prices rise again.

The increasing costs of living, benefits not keeping up with inflation and the removal of the £20 universal credit uplift has forced more people in Rochdale into poverty and into ‘in-work poverty’ – whereby many families are turning to foodbanks, despite being in paid work.

 

               

 

Neil Emmott, leader of Rochdale Council, said: “Rochdale Council is doing everything we can locally to provide advice and support to families across the borough to help them through the cost-of-living crisis.

“But the main drivers lie with government, and we desperately need a national anti-poverty strategy to address the large inequalities we face in Rochdale and across the UK.”

Graham Whitham, CEO of Greater Manchester Poverty Action, said: “GMPA’s Poverty Monitor highlights a shockingly high number of children in Rochdale that are living in poverty.

“At GMPA we work to prevent and reduce poverty by campaigning for a real living wage, advising local authorities and the combined authority on anti-poverty strategies, and offering practical help to people through our money advice referral tool.

“Our vision is of a Greater Manchester free from poverty, and while we do all we can locally we are seeing more and more people, and children struggling.”

“Our data shows we have a growing Greater Manchester and nationwide poverty emergency. We urgently need a national anti-poverty strategy to help people in poverty.”