ONE-in-four children in West Belfast are living in poverty, new figures have revealed.
For the first time, the UK government has released child poverty figures for every constituency and local authority across the UK. The figures show that across the North, one-in-five children are living in poverty.
In West Belfast, 25.4 per cent of children are living in property – the highest number in any of the 18 constituencies across the North. That percentage equates to 5,771 children.
North Belfast is second highest with 5,206 – equating to 23.9 per cent. East Belfast (17.8 per cent) and South Belfast and Mid-Down (15.1 per cent) are amongst the lowest levels in comparison.
Responding to the figures West Belfast MP Paul Maskey said it is "unacceptable that children continue to live in poverty".
"West Belfast has suffered acutely from savage Westminster austerity such as the two-child limit, which is finally coming to a long overdue end.
"In the Assembly, Sinn Féin has worked to shield our most vulnerable from the British government’s cruel cuts. This includes binning the bedroom tax and benefit cap. We also continue to press Communities Minister Gordon Lyons to deliver a fit for purpose plan to tackle poverty.
"Danny Baker MLA is also bringing forward a new law which will provide payments during the holidays to families in receipt of free school meals.
West Belfast MP Paul Maskey
"But this week we again see a British government hellbent on heaping misery on our society with its huge cut to community and voluntary organisations’ funding.
"Only by taking control of our own future, where all decisions are made at home in the best interests of local workers and families, will we be able to fully turn this tide.
"In the meantime, Sinn Féin will continue to do all we can to support people struggling."
People Before Profit West Belfast MLA Gerry Carroll said that the political establishment "has utterly failed working class children".
"It should be a source of deep shame for all Executive parties that one-in-four children in West Belfast are living in poverty – going hungry each day, growing up in temporary accommodation and denied a dignified, comfortable childhood.
Gerry Carroll MLA
"Stormont's response has been pitiful. Executive parties and the SDLP handed themselves a £14,000 pay rise, while families rely on food banks to feed their kids. That is a moral obscenity.
"The Executive's draft anti-poverty strategy is not fit for purpose. It is full of warm words and weak commitments that bear no relation to the scale of this crisis.
"Westminster finally scrapping the punitive two-child limit is welcome, but it doesn't go nearly far enough. Until Stormont treats child poverty as the emergency it is, nothing will fundamentally change."
