The impact of welfare reforms on child vulnerability

Policy in Practice was asked by the Children’s Commissioner to use local authority held household level data to assess the impact of Universal Credit and associated welfare reforms will have on children in low-income households.

Our analysis showed a dramatic increase in child vulnerability as a result of welfare reforms.

In addition, we found that the introduction of Universal Credit, the two child limit to benefits and the Benefit Cap combined has meant that the number of low-income families who are struggling to make ends meet has jumped from 13% to 25%.

Further, the cumulative impact of welfare reforms is considerably greater than the impact of each reform in isolation, affecting 48% of households who lose £3,441 on average per year.