Many Children in NI have lived a ‘Cost of Living Crisis’ Their Whole Lives

Commenting on Stormont’s Finance Minister writing a joint letter with his counterparts in Scotland and Wales to the Chancellor, requesting extra support to tackle rising costs. Koulla Yiasouma, NI Commissioner for Children and Young People, said: 

“A welcome intervention and I support any call and action which seeks to alleviate the impact of the current ‘cost of living’ crisis. This is a significant task.

“While most in society are experiencing the impact of the crisis, many are experiencing what ‘poverty’ can feel like for the first time. When their household income does not cover the ‘cost of living’ – the cost of being able to live. This must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

“There are over 100,000 children in Northern Ireland living in poverty, that is over a quarter of all children here. Many have been living in a ‘cost of living’ crisis their whole lives. For many days, weeks months and years, it is these children and their families whose income has not been able to meet the cost of being able to live and it is them who are experiencing the current crisis most acutely.

“Successive governments in both Westminster and Stormont have failed to properly address the poverty children live with. We need governments to act to tackle and eradicate it – this is not, and should not, be just an aspiration. It is a possibility with determined and focused government action.  The first step now, however, is having a government.”

ENDS