Save the Children: Half of all families with children in NI are on benefits

A new report by the charity called 'It's hard to survive' says that the welfare system is a key part of families’ incomes, with about 1 in 2 families with children in Northern Ireland receiving some form of benefits.

The statistics are "stark and about to get worse", the charity says; It found that 100,000 children live in poverty in Northern Ireland and nearly 40% of those are from single parent families.

More than two in three children in poverty live in households where someone is working - but low quality, low hours and low paid work is a key contributor to child poverty, it adds.

The 50% of families on benefits includes 76,000 families on some form of tax credit – 34% of whom are out of work – and 43,000 families on Universal Credit.

Charlotte, a single parent of four children, told researchers: “It's hard to survive especially now when everything is going higher like paying rent. So, I will say it's not enough, it’s not enough.”

Emma, a single parent of two children, worries about debt. She said: “If I have a bad month and there’s too much stuff to pay for school or whatever and then I'll use the credit card.”

However Grace’s concern is clothing her five children. She says that she cannot afford to buy her daughter proper clothes. "I'm not saying I want to go buy them every week something expensive" she said, but "they don’t want to (go to) school and look like a scavenger". Sometimes her children want to go for a walk in the city, but tell her: "I don't have clothes to go because we have just a school uniform".

Another parent simply said: “Christmas won’t be presents, it will be having a warm home.”

Peter Bryson, Save the Children’s head of NI, said: "The Executive has a responsibility to ensure the welfare system is helping families here with the challenges they face. This report shows it is not doing that. Fixing the system needs to be a priority for government.”