A rapid review of children and young people’s views of poverty and welfare in the context of Universal Credit
Quick-read summary
Children and young people’s life chances depend heavily on family resources, and in the UK over two million children live in households claiming Universal Credit.
Universal Credit was designed to simplify the UK benefits system and improve work incentives, but has received critical attention due to it causing ‘ongoing reductions to the incomes of some of the most economically fragile households’.
This study aimed to explore children and young people’s views on Universal Credit and the potential impacts on health, by looking at already-published research.
We undertook a rapid review of studies about Universal Credit undertaken with children in the UK but did not find any.
(Rapid review = a type of search that academics use, to find already-published research on a particular topic)
As a result, we expanded our searches to include studies focussing on family finances, welfare benefits and poverty.
Our findings show that growing up in poverty has significant, negative impacts on children and young people’s health and wellbeing, causing feelings of exclusion, shame and unfairness, and they raise important questions about the adequacy of welfare support in the UK.
Who is this evidence useful for?
Anyone who has an interest in understanding children and young people’s views on poverty and the impacts it has on them.
What is the issue?
Disadvantaged socio-economic circumstances present a significant risk within children for developing poor health and persistent mental health difficulties that continue into adulthood. Even brief exposure to childhood poverty leads to reduced life opportunities and higher risk of death in early adulthood.
Universal Credit is a UK social security payment to people on low income or who are out of work, but it has been criticised for reducing the incomes of the poorest households. In August 2022 there were over 5.5 million people claiming Universal Credit, two in five of whom were working, and over two million children lived in such households.
Most studies on childhood poverty rely on national statistics or focus on the views and experiences of adults. However, there is a need to understand children and young people’s views so that social policies such as Universal Credit support them to have a good start in life.
Research summary
NIHR ARC NENC research fellows at the universities of Cumbria, Newcastle and Northumbria undertook a literature review (looked at research that was already published) to identify qualitative or mixed method studies in the UK that report children and young people’s views on Universal Credit and the potential impacts on their health.
Using ‘rapid review’ methodology we looked for studies published since 2009 (when Universal Credit was first discussed) in library databases and the websites of several charities and found 477 studies matching our search criteria.
We then read study abstracts to check that the studies were undertaken in the UK and reported children and young people’s views on Universal Credit, welfare, family finances, low-income or poverty. After doing this, 16 studies remained to be reviewed.
The included studies were read to identify themes across studies and these themes were brought together to produce the findings.
What the research found
The review showed that growing up in poverty can have significant, negative impacts on children and young people’s physical health, mental health and wellbeing, causing feelings of exclusion, shame and a sense of unfairness.
For children experiencing poverty:
- School was often an unhappy experience; they struggled to fit in and join in on equal terms due to lacking many items and resources they were expected to possess.
- Outside of school, they were excluded from social activities their financially better off peers took for granted.
- Housing insecurity was common and many experienced degraded housing and neighbourhood conditions, leaving them feeling trapped at home but afraid to go outside.
- Food insecurity and doing without had become normalised, children adapted their needs for possessions and recreational activities by not asking for the things they wanted because they knew some were unaffordable.
- Family activities such as holidays and day trips were rare. Children and young people highlighted that some low-income and lone-parent families did not have enough time to spend together due to working long and unsociable hours, this caused distress to children; they wanted their mothers to work part-time for higher wages.
Most studies showed children and young people were able to understand poverty. Those involving children and young people with experience of poverty showed them to be very aware of their families’ financial situation and to share the worry and stress it caused, although they tried to hide this from parents.
However, only one study considered the effects of poverty on health, and no studies involved children and young people with disabilities or living in rural locations.
Why is this important?
The findings raise important questions about the adequacy of welfare support in the UK and the impacts of this for children and young people.
They increase our understandings of how some Universal Credit rules can impact negatively on children’s lives such as the impacts for larger families of the two-child limit and benefits cap; the privacy impacts for children due to house size and rent restrictions, as well as the lack of time caused by the requirements of the claimant commitment being extended to mothers/responsible carers.
Findings also challenge the notion that parents can protect their children from the effects of poverty thus demonstrating the importance of engaging children and young people in discussions on social policy design and in understanding the wider effects of policies such as Universal Credit on their lives.