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Save the Children launches first ever UK appeal to help children at home1

Fundraising | Jonathan Last | 5 Sep 2012

Save the Children has launched its first appeal to the UK public for funds to help children at home, hoping to raise £500,000 to help fund its work with Britain’s poorest children.

The appeal for donations, which can be made via the charity’s website, comes as STC today publishes Child Poverty 2012: It Shouldn't Happen Here.

It reveals the hardships faced by children as Britain sits a financial slump, including the revelation that "one in eight of the poorest children in the UK go without at least one hot meal a day, and one in ten of the UK's poorest parents have cut back on food for them to make sure their children have enough to eat".

The report follows conversations with more than 1,500 youths and 5,000 parents in the UK, and reveals a range of issues such as the emotional strain and inability to afford essential items such as winter clothes or new shoes.

Poverty ‘tearing families apart’

The report emphasises the ordeal of children being forced to worry about their family’s financial well-being, instead of concentrating on their own lives and education.

STC chief executive Justin Forsyth spoke of how poverty is "tearing families apart".

“No child should see their parent going hungry or start the new term without a warm coat and with holes in their shoes,” he said. “[Parents are] buckling under the pressure of mounting bills and children are seeing their parents argue more about money.

“That’s why for the first time in our history we are launching a UK appeal. We need to help poor families survive the recession.”

STC calls on government to do more

Save the Children also takes the launch of the new appeal as a chance to air its views on how the government can help tackle the problem of UK child poverty.

The organisation calls upon government to encourage more employers to pay the living wage, and to strengthen the new welfare system - Universal Credit - by allowing working parents to retain a higher percentage of their wage earnings before benefits are taken out.

It also recommends helping parents afford to work by providing extra child care support that covers 80 per cent of costs.

Directory: Save the Children
Who's Who: Justin Forsyth