Children’s commissioner says any Labour strategy to tackle deprivation must scrap the two-child benefit cap
Children in England are living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty” where deprivation has become normalised, the children’s commissioner has said, as she insisted the two-child benefit limit must be scrapped.
Young people said they had experienced not having enough water to shower, rats biting through their walls, and mouldy bedrooms, among a number of examples in a report on the “crisis of hardship” gripping the country.
Dame Rachel de Souza said she had noticed a significant shift in how young people talked about their lives since she became children’s commissioner four years ago, and that “issues that were traditionally seen as ‘adult’ concerns are now keenly felt by children”.
“Children shared harrowing accounts of hardship, with some in almost Dickensian levels of poverty,” she said. “They don’t talk about ‘poverty’ as an abstract concept but about not having the things that most people would consider basic: a safe home that isn’t mouldy or full or rats, with a bed big enough to stretch out in, ‘luxury’ food like bacon, a place to do homework, heating, privacy in the bathroom and being able to wash, having their friends over, and not having to travel hours to school.”
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She said that, in “one of the richest societies in the world”, people in power “should be ashamed that children are growing up knowing their futures are being determined by their financial circumstances”.
Vote Labour for Genocide.Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone obect to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities,mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Keir “I support Zionism without Qualification” Starmer supporting genocide.
A newborn baby in an incubator struggles to survive following Israel’s blockade of food and medical aid in Gaza City, Gaza on March 11, 2025. (Photo: Khalil Ramzi Alkahlut/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 580 premature infants are at risk of death due to “depleted” reserves of baby formula.
The Associated Press reported Wednesday that 580 premature infants are at risk of death, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, due to a shortage of medical-grade formula entering the strip.
Despite a recent policy change by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow “minimal aid” into the strip following a total blockade of food, water, shelter, and medication, it has proven far too little to keep hospitals running and keep people fed. It has proven especially deadly for children.
The AP report quotes Dr. Ahmed al-Farah, head of the pediatrics and obstetrics department at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, one of the few functional medical facilities left in Gaza.
Last week, al-Farah warned that the hospital’s stock of milk was “completely depleted,” and that unless aid was delivered immediately, the babies would face “an avoidable disaster.” The widely publicized call was answered with the shipment of 20 boxes of formula from the U.S. aid group Rahma Worldwide.
Al-Farah said this was enough to meet the needs of 10 babies for two weeks, but warned that in the long run it would be far too little, especially with no guarantee of aid in the future.
“This is not enough at all,” he told the AP. “It solved the problem temporarily, but what we need is a permeant solution: Lift the siege.”
Many other hospitals reported shortages of formula that had not been answered, such as Al-Rantisi Hospital in Gaza City, which was completely out of stock.
Fortified milk has become increasingly necessary in Gaza due to the increasing number of premature births. In May, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that as a result of widespread hunger, 1 in 5 children is now born pre-term or underweight. That malnutrition has also left many new mothers unable to breastfeed.
Dr. Asaad Nawajha, a pediatric specialist at Nasser Hospital, told Middle East Eye that the blockade has proven catastrophic for the health of both children and their mothers.
“This all goes back to the [harsh] conditions mothers endure amid this vicious war on the Gaza Strip,” Nawajha said. “Due to the lack of nutritious items entering the Gaza Strip, both mothers and children have been exposed to illnesses resulting from malnutrition.”
The Israeli government’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has insisted that the amount of aid allowed into Gaza is sufficient to provide for the population.
On June 22, COGAT announced that 430 aid trucks had been allowed to enter the strip during the preceding week. However, this is but a fraction of the more than 600 trucks per day that the United Nations is necessary to meet their needs.
Many people who have come to aid sites administered by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), to obtain the meager supplies available, have been met with deadly violence from the Israeli military.
Since May 27, at least 549 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 injured by Israeli forces at these sites, according to the U.N. Office for Coordinated Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Gaza Media Office reports at least 19 fatal incidents at these GHF sites over the span of just one month.
Many of the victims have been children. According to a study released Thursday by the humanitarian group Save the Children, children have been killed at 10 of those 19 incidents.
“No child should be killed searching for food,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, Save the Children’s regional director for the Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe. “This is not a humanitarian operation—it’s a death trap.”
Vote Labour for Genocide.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
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Palestinians search for usable items in the rubble of heavily damaged and collapsed buildings after Israeli attacks on Al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza on June 26, 2025. [Saeed M. M. T. Jaras – Anadolu Agency]
The UN’s top official for children and armed conflict issued a stark warning on Wednesday to the Security Council, urging immediate action to protect children amid surging violence in conflict zones, particularly in the Gaza Strip.
Virginia Gamba, the UN envoy for Children and Armed Conflict told the Council; “The year 2024 witnessed an unprecedented escalation of violence against children, as well as a devastating record of attacks on humanitarian personnel and United Nations staff on the ground.”
“All too often, children continue to bear the brunt of relentless hostilities, indiscriminate attacks, blunt disregard for ceasefires, peace efforts, and shocking disregard for international humanitarian and human rights law,” she said. “All of these, in a context of deepening humanitarian crises at unprecedented levels.”
Gamba said the denial of humanitarian access has become “one of the gravest obstacles to protecting children in conflict zones,” citing attacks on aid convoys, detention of aid workers and bureaucratic barriers to essential services like food, healthcare and education.
“We cannot continue to stand by and watch with no action what is happening to the children globally, and especially in Gaza,” she said. “The scale of destruction and suffering borne by the children of Gaza defies and contravenes every human standard.”
“There is no justification for depriving children of access to the means for their survival, including access to food, health care and security,” she added.
Gamba said she has called on Israel “to facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief to civilians in need in the Gaza Strip,” and urged “all parties to the conflict in Gaza to expedite the distribution of aid because international humanitarian law applies to every party, in every conflict, and it must be respected.”
Noting that almost half of all grave violations in 2024 were committed by non-state armed groups, including “killing and maiming, abduction, recruitment and use, and sexual violence,” she emphasized that “this is unacceptable.”
“The deliberate targeting and military use of schools, hospitals, and essential water and sanitation infrastructure must end,” she said, urging states to uphold international legal commitments to protect children.
“Let us renew the global consensus on child protection and uphold every child’s fundamental right to life, health, education, and a safe future,” Gamba said.
“We cannot afford to return to the dark ages, where children were invisible and voiceless victims of armed conflict,” she warned. “Please do not allow them to slip back into the shadows of despair.”
Echoing Gamba’s concerns, UNICEF Director of Child Protection Sheema Sen Gupta told the Security Council: “Each violation against children in every country around the globe represents a moral failure. And each leaves scars that may never fully heal.”
“In Israel and the state of Palestine last year, over 8,000 grave violations have been verified,” she said. “In Gaza, children bear the brunt of this suffering. Nowhere else in the world has such a high number of grave violations been recorded since this Council established the Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism 20 years ago.”
“Children are not collateral damage. They are not soldiers. They are not bargaining chips. They are children. They deserve to be safe. They deserve justice. They deserve a future,” she said. “This just cannot be the new normal.”
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Vote Labour for Genocide.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Liz Kendall urged her colleagues to support the bill; however, dozens of backbenchers have already signed the amendment seeking to kill it off. Photograph: James Veysey/Shutterstock
Amendment intended to kill off legislation that would cut benefits could be backed by up to 100 Labour MPs including senior figures
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Dozens of backbench MPs have signed the amendment. Government whips have already been steeling themselves for a rebellion on the welfare bill when it is first voted on next week.
A senior MP said: “The government hasn’t listened to private concerns so now will have to address these very public ones.”
The aim would be to pass a so-called “reasoned amendment”, which halts the passage of a bill. It means the bill would not pass its second reading, saying that provisions “have not been subject to a formal consultation with disabled people, or co-produced with them, or their carers”.
It also says the bill should not pass until the Office for Budget Responsibility can publish its analysis of the employment impact of the changes this autumn. The amendment adds that most of the additional employment support funding will not be in place until the end of the decade.
It notes the government’s own impact assessment estimates that 250,000 people will be pushed into poverty as a result of the provisions, including 50,000 children. It calls for an assessment of the impact of the changes on health or care needs and for the conclusion of other reviews.
