Influencing Child Poverty

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‘Discuss a current social issue/problem that you have identified in the media and that is relevant to social work, drawing on a range of social science research to inform your discussion.’
Child poverty is a major ongoing social issue in the UK today. It is a problem constantly highlighted in the media by concerned groups and which the government is constantly trying to find ways to tackle it. Child poverty is an extremely relevant topic in relation to social work due to its link to vulnerable and excluded groups which social workers strive to empower. Social workers aim to work with groups like those in poverty to help the carers of the children recognise the situation they are in and use appropriate tools provided to them to get out of it. …show more content…

There are many different types and causes of poverty and therefore child poverty, some which are very important and others that play a smaller role in influencing child poverty. Ethnicity plays a pretty big role in influencing child poverty as someone from an ethnic minority family is so much more likely to be in poverty than someone from a white British family. This shows how race is as a cause of child poverty. Low income was the next variable that clearly played a massive role In influencing child poverty. It is clear from this discussion and research that low income is the main contributor towards child poverty out of all the different variables, as low income is obviously one of the main parts of being in poverty. This research showed however that not only do you need to earn a certain amount in order to be able to provide for child in a standard living manner, the parent needs to be given enough hours a week at work in order to be able to do this and must be getting paid a decent living amount per hour. Often these low income families are not receiving either of these things are either earning a very little amount at a job or claiming benefits. Due to the benefit cuts though this is not a way to provide a comfortable living for your family and saw a lot of low income families in trouble when they were cut. Lastly the last cause was geographical location. This was a smaller cause but definitely still plays its part. Where you are born and who you are born to massively effects your chances in life. It determines whether or not you will end up in the cycle of poverty. The discussion ended by looking at what types of things the government have in place in order to stop child poverty. They aim to eradicate it by 2020 which looks unlikely as it is still a massive ongoing issue with millions of children in the UK in some form of poverty. To

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