Poverty and low income is 'making children sick', warn paediatricians

Poverty and low income is “making children sick”, paediatricians have warned, prompting urgent calls for the next government to tackle health inequalities or risk storing up health problems for future generations.

A report published today by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) and Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) reveals more than two-thirds of paediatricians believe poverty and low income contribute “very much” to the ill health of children they work with.

There were 3.9 million children living in “relative poverty” in 2014-15, up from 3.7 million a year earlier, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show.

It comes after figures from the DWP revealed one in four (nearly four million) children in the UK live in poverty – with projections suggesting this could rise to five million by the end of the decade.

The study, based on a survey of more than 250 paediatricians across the country, reveals that 60 per cent of professionals believe food insecurity contributes to poor health among children, while two-thirds said housing problems or homelessness were a concern, and four in 10 respondents saying they’d had difficulty discharging a child in the last six months because of concerns about housing or food insecurity.

More than half of respondents meanwhile said financial stress and worry contribute “very much” to the ill health of children they work with.

One of the paediatricians surveyed said poverty was leading to families being unable to attend appointments or visit their sick children, saying: “I see parents not staying with children in hospital, or not spending adequate time with babies on the Special Care Baby Unit, due to financial worries about missing work or the transport costs to hospital.”

Another doctor commented that “overcrowded, damp or unsuitable housing amongst our patients is the rule rather than the exception”, while another said one of his patients is a “two-year-old with recurrent seizures, living in a house with no heating”.

Many respondents also said their patients struggled to afford healthy food, with one doctor observing that many relied on food banks, while another said parents were “limiting their eating to care for their children”.

The report also revealed that otherwise healthy children are at risk of becoming unhealthy as a result of poor nutrition and cold and cramped housing, and that it can make looking after children who already have conditions such as autism or learning difficulties “next to impossible”.

The new data, released by the DWP revealed that nearly 200,000 children from the lowest income families have seen their parents’ income fall as a result of the Government’s new lower benefits cap, with children living in 93 per cent of the households hit by the cap.

Commenting on the findings, Professor Russell Viner, Officer for Health Promotion at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said: “Poverty has a devastating effect on child health and this report makes disturbing reading.

“The health impact on children living in poverty is significant – whether that’s increased likelihood of respiratory problems, mental ill-health or obesity – than children living in more affluent areas.

“Worryingly, almost half of those surveyed feel the problem is getting worse, with the combination of increasing poverty, housing problems and cuts to services meaning more families are struggling.”