Addressing Child Poverty in the Uk

Background

This project is concerned with the state of children living in poverty in the UK referring to children raised in poor families and also orphans who are raised with inadequate resources. The Children’s Society Organisation in 2019 estimated that up to a third of UK children, around nine children in the average classroom. In 2019, the Full Fact organisation estimated that up to 4.6 million children were living in poverty in UK ("Poverty in the UK: a guide to the facts and figures," 2019).

To tackle the issue of child poverty, political will is required (Wolfe, 2012). It is worth noting that there have been considerable political activities that have been targeted at reducing child poverty in the UK, the most prominent one being the child poverty eradication goal in the UK (Crossley, 2014). That goal is enshrined in law by the Child Poverty Act, and that has led to the publication of different child poverty strategies. However, child poverty is still quite rampant.

The purpose of this study is to develop a concrete political strategy with timelines that would see the complete eradication of child poverty in the UK. The project will look into samples of children living with poverty to establish the actual extent of their suffering. It will also look into previous political strategies that have been adopted aimed at eradicating child poverty to determine why they have not been entirely successful. This study will suggest the most effective strategy with timelines that would eliminate child poverty in the UK if adopted. The study will contribute to improving the quality of life of children who live in poverty.

To be more specific, the research questions of this study will be;

What has been achieved by past political efforts aimed at eradicating child poverty in the UK?

What did the past political efforts miss out on?

What challenges have faced past political efforts aimed at eradicating child poverty in the UK?

What are the actual effects of child poverty?

What are the views of politicians and political strategists on the most effective ways of eradicating child poverty in the UK?

Proposed Methodology: The empirical and iterative approaches will be adopted in this research. In the initial stage, I will carry out a thorough review of the literature on the eradication of child poverty. That will produce an overview of different political strategies adopted in the past to tackle child poverty, and determine the achievements of the strategies, and also to determine their shortcomings. I will also explore the solutions offered by other researchers in other parts of the world for eradicating child poverty for purposes of narrowing down on the orientation of my project.

Then I will develop interviews targeted at politicians and activists who will be selected through purposive sampling. The study will seek the views of politicians and activists who have made contributions in one way or another in previous child poverty eradication programs. These interviews will be aimed at collecting their views on the political measures that would eliminate child poverty.

This data will be analysed statistically using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. I will synthesise and further publish all the results and relevant outcomes, and I will also provide all the individuals who will participate in the interviews feedback.