Making the Child Poverty Strategy work for migrant families

At the time of writing, the UK government is preparing to launch a new national strategy to tackle child poverty. Weeks into being newly elected, prime minister Keir Starmer pledged to make this a central priority, promising to “leave no stone unturned to give every child the very best start at life.” This is a landmark moment for the government, yet for millions of children growing up in migrant families, it raises a crucial question: Will their experiences be acknowledged, or will they remain under the radar?

Our new analysis reveals that in 2023/2024, 4.45 million children were living in poverty, of whom almost 40 per cent, or 1.75 million, were in families where both parents were born abroad. 

This is a growing crisis, hidden in plain sight. Behind these numbers, families are doing their best to provide for their children, working, contributing and raising children who call Britain their home.

Put simply. If we are serious about tackling child poverty, we cannot ignore these children. Yet the levers that government would normally pull to address disadvantage are unavailable for many of them, because they are excluded from mainstream support.

Many children in migrant families will be affected by the No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) immigration condition, which bars access to most benefits, social housing and homelessness support. When families fall into crisis, councils can step in under section 17 of the Children Act 1989 – as a last resort safeguard to protect children deemed to be in need. However, this mechanism was never designed for long-term support, nor to specifically help families affected by NRPF. The responses from local authorities are often inconsistent, and the costs place considerable strain on councils.

The sheer number of children in poverty within migrant families is not an accumulation of isolated cases, but rather a symptom of how welfare, immigration, and asylum systems currently interact.

The government has a key opportunity to take action. The Child Poverty Strategy must include specific levers to ensure that the 1.75 million children facing additional barriers have a fair chance to thrive. IPPR sets out seven pragmatic proposals that would help lift children in migrant families out of poverty. These reforms focus on fairness, opportunity and fiscal responsibility. They include the following.

• Statutory guidance and funding for section 17 through national standards and a Section 17 Support Fund so that councils can lawfully and consistently protect children in need.
• Raising asylum support rates by setting weekly allowances for families seeking asylum at 70 per cent of universal credit levels and extending child supplements to all dependent children.
• Extending free childcare to NRPF parents by enabling working parents with NRPF to access the 30-hour childcare entitlement, helping families increase earnings and children access early education.
• Expanding the Local Authority Housing Fund so councils can use housing funds to accommodate destitute children in NRPF families, replacing costly hotel stays with stable homes.
• Fixing the Change of Conditions process by simplifying applications to lift NRPF restrictions and introducing service standards to prevent long delays.
• Refreshing the list of public funds to remove key child-focussed benefits such as child benefit and local welfare assistance from the public funds list so that no child goes hungry because of their parents’ status.

Together, these seven steps form a realistic pathway for change that aligns with the government's goals to reduce dependency on crisis support, manage migration, and deliver opportunities for all children.

If these levers are not put in place, the divide between children with and without access to support will further deepen. Poverty in childhood has lifelong consequences, and for children in migrant families, many of whom have lived in the UK their entire lives, it means being denied the full promise of opportunity and a sense of belonging.

None of IPPR’s proposal require radical departures from current policy. Rather, they build on existing systems and frameworks to ensure that the Child Poverty Strategy delivers impact where it is needed the most. They will also reduce the pressure on local authorities, who currently bear the brunt of emergency housing and safeguarding costs for families affected by NRPF.

Our proposals reaffirm a simple principle: every child in the UK should have a fair start in life, regardless of where their parents were born. This is the moment to ensure the Child Poverty Strategy delivers for all children. If the prime minister is committed to ensuring that “no stone is unturned to give every child the best start at life”, then serious consideration should be given to children in migrant families – whose struggles too often go unseen.