Children across Redbridge constituencies are suffering dramatically different rates of poverty, figures released today show.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty used income and benefit data to estimate that nearly 10,000 children are living in poverty in Ilford South, compared to only 3,698 in Chingford and Woodford Green.
The number in Ilford South represents 27 per cent of under-18s, while in Leyton and Wanstead the figure is 24 per cent, or 5,601 children.
Both Ilford North and Chingford and Woodford Green have 18 per cent of children in poverty – totalling an estimated 4,546 children in the Ilford constituency.
Ilford South MP Mike Gapes said he was worried about effects of poverty in the “long term”. He said: “Real wages are falling and child benefit is being capped so I worry that these figures will get worse. The government needs to act.”
Chairman of the campaign Enver Solomon said poverty can make children “miss out on the essentials of a decent childhood”.
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