I was busy on the frontline of parenting back in 1997 when Labour last got in after nearly two decades under the Tories.

It is no exaggeration to say that life under the Tories back then was brutal. It has been brutal under this last lot, but back then the demonisation of single parents was rife. The ideal was for women to stay at home with the children, but only if they had a partner, otherwise you were a blot on society and a drain on the welfare state.

I lived on £52 a week with two small kids and after nappies and basics, there was never anything spare, always scabbling around at the end of the week for change when someone spilt the milk.

Tax Credits, bought in by the new Labour Government literally changed our world. With a lump sum each month as well as our weekly money we could budget and afford, not massive luxuries, but little trips out, ice cream at the park, going to the cinema.

Child care vouchers meant that suddenly I could afford to work – never earning enough before to be able to pay for childcare and eat. And working over 16 hours was rewarded with higher payments, not less. With the challenge to eradicate child poverty in twenty years, Labour placed the family centre in society and my family flourished.

There is a tightness to always struggling with money – a belt tied just a little too tight across the chest. Even when you are not actively worrying about money – how are we going to afford this? – the worry is still there, a pressure that takes its toll.

Life under Labour – while not a bed of roses, eased that pressure just a little. No longer demonised, no longer forced to the margins of society – and it is hard to explain the political stigmatisation of single parents back then – oh no it’s not, just think about how the Tories talk now about the disabled or migrants. But under Labour, we were part of society again – with a little extra income we could join in, our kids not facing decades of poverty.

How the world has changed under 14 years of Tory rule 4.2 million children are living in poverty.

According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, it has been almost 20 years since the last prolonged period of falling poverty.

I lived as a child under the eviscerating poverty of Thatcher’s Britain, often hungry, with holes in my school shoes, and no heating on at home. My children’s early years were under the same stigmatisation.

The Labour government lifted me and my family from poverty, and with that little bit extra I had space to breathe, to study, to get a proper paying job, not rubbish short-term contracts for pennies.

Suddenly there was the minimum wage and opportunities for training.

Now we have nearly 1500 foodbanks across the country, massive shortages of housing, zero-hour contracts, spiralling rents and childcare costs. Now both parents have to work just to survive.

We have young people struggling under the weight of a mental health crisis, with waiting lists that are too long, schools that are underfunded and facing staff cuts – particularly in pastoral care, the very staff that support young people and children who are struggling. With the youth service decimated our young people are pushed further and further to the margins.  

So, what will the new Labour government do to help families?

They need to abolish the two-child limit on Child Benefit and lift the benefit cap. Other than claiming child benefit, those with more than two children can not claim any extra support.

Bought in by the Tories, this cruel policy was meant to control who got to have more children, and by that know we are talking about working class women. With the exception of rape – and think for a moment of having been raped and discovering you’re pregnant and having to explain that to the benefit office – those with more than two children are forced into poverty.

Those living in deep poverty are now 59% below the poverty line.  That’s 59% lower than the already poor. The poor are getting poorer, and the very poor are now desperate. In 2022 around 1 million children were destitute – not able to have their most basic physical needs to be warm and fed and clean.

Can I just say that again – in 21^st Century Britain 1 million children are destitute. We should be ashamed.

And we are not just talking about people on benefits 43% of children with more than one sibling live in poverty regardless of their parents working.

What we need is investment in children’s services.

Early intervention services for struggling families have been cut by 50% since 2010

Unsurprisingly, there are now a record number of children in care – 100,000.  We need investment to provide children with a supportive home, with extra support for young people leaving care as they transition to independent living. Now run as private businesses we need to focus to shift from profits to the right care for indivdual children.

We need the return of youth clubs to support young people, steer them away from crime, and include them in our communities.

We need improved career services and education so that all young people have a chance of an education that is suitable to their aspirations. Where you come from should not be a barrier to what you want to do.

Free childcare could be expanded to include parents in education or training, removing a barrier that stops some parents from being able to access work.

I could go on. The list is endless. There is so much to do.  And now it seems there is not the money to do anything. But lifting children out of poverty has to be the priority. We cannot afford the long-term consequences, -in health inequalities and in lost opportunities and aspirations of a whole generation.

originally printed in Lemon-Aid Parenting