The Kent neighbourhoods where more than a third of children are living in poverty as numbers rise

Well over a third of are living in poverty in Kent’s most deprived neighbourhoods. Data gathered by KentLive shows the stark constrast between different wards of the county, where anything from 36% to 4% of kids are living below the breadline. Across , a total of 65,581 children aged 0 to 15 were living in poverty in the year ending March 2024 according to the latest figures from the DWP.

That’s up from 63,033 a year earlier, and works out as just under two out of every 11 children (18%) in the county. However, the situation is much more desperate for children in some parts of Kent than others. In the St Radigunds ward of , well over a third (38%) of children were living below the breadline last year.



That’s the highest proportion in our county, though it only ranks 481st nationally. In the Town & Castle ward of Dover 37% of children were living below the breadline, while in both Tower Hamlets (Dover) and Cliftonville West ( ) 36% of children were living in poverty, in Dane Valley (Thanet) it was 35%, and in Newington (Thanet), Stanhope (Ashford) and Eastcliff (Thanet) it was 34%. By contrast, just 4% of children in two Kent wards were living in poverty last year, the lowest proportions in the county - Pantiles and St Mark's ( ) and Sevenoaks Kippington ( ).

You can see how many children were living in poverty in your neighbourhood last year - and contact your MP about the issue - by using our interactive map: Across the UK, a total of 4.5 million children were living in poverty in the year ending March 2024 the last full year under the Conservative government. That’s a record high, and an extra 121,000 children compared to a year earlier - enough to fill Liverpool’s Anfield stadium twice over.

Local level figures - which are calculated slightly differently to the national ones - show that in over 130 neighbourhoods, the majority of children are living in poverty. When looking at the South and East of the country, Peterborough has the highest rate - some 60% of children in the city’s North ward were living in poverty in the year ending March 2024. By contrast, fewer than one in 100 kids in the Walton Manor ward of Oxford were living in poverty, which is the lowest rate in the country.

Meanwhile just 1% of children in Godalming Holloway in Waverley (Surrey) and Oatlands and Burwood Park in Elmbridge (Surrey) were living in poverty last year. The actual number of children living in poverty in local areas is likely even higher, as the method of calculating the figures is different than at the national level. The national figures look at relative poverty after housing costs, whereas local figures don’t take housing into account.

The national figures also include children from the age of 0 right up to 19, if they are still at home and not in work. Local figures only include kids aged 0 to 15. .

A Government spokesperson said: “No child should be in poverty – that’s why our ministerial taskforce is developing an ambitious strategy to give every child the best start in life as part of our Plan for Change. “Alongside delivering on our Get Britain Working reforms to support people into good jobs and make everyone better off, we have increased the Living Wage, uprated benefits and are supporting 700,000 of the poorest families by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions to help low-income households.” This April marked eight years since the introduction of the two-child benefit cap.

Figures from the End Child Poverty Coalition show that there is a link between the percentage of children living in poverty and the percentage of children impacted by the policy. Their figures estimate that one in every nine children live in a family impacted by the cap. Joseph Howes, CEO of Buttle UK and Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, said: “Scrapping the two-child limit is a crucial first step to address rising child poverty across the UK.

“By doing this the government could also see a boost to local economies, targeting some of the most deprived areas of the country. “We don’t want to see another year of families suffering as a result of the two-child limit. The government must scrap this policy as part of their soon to be published strategy to tackle child poverty”.

St Radigunds (Dover): 38% Town & Castle (Dover): 37% Tower Hamlets (Dover): 36% Cliftonville West (Thanet): 36% Dane Valley (Thanet): 35% Newington (Thanet): 34% Stanhope ( ): 34% Eastcliff (Thanet): 34% Margate Central (Thanet): 33% Sheerness (Swale): 33% Folkestone Central ( and ): 32% Buckland (Dover): 32% Walland & Denge Marsh (Folkestone and Hythe): 31% Luton and Wayfield ( ): 31% Northwood (Thanet): 31% Chatham Central (Medway): 30% Riverside (Gravesham): 30% Northfleet North (Gravesham): 30% Folkestone Harbour (Folkestone and Hythe): 30% Sheppey East (Swale): 29.% Temple Hill (Dartford): 29.% Bockhanger (Ashford): 29.

% Central Harbour (Thanet): 28.% Gillingham North (Medway): 28.% East Folkestone (Folkestone and Hythe): 28.

% Shepway South (Maidstone): 28.% Northgate (Canterbury): 28.% Sir Moses Montefiore (Thanet): 27% Beacon Road (Thanet): 27% Westgate-on-Sea (Thanet): 26% Westcourt (Gravesham): 26% High Street (Maidstone): 26% Gillingham South (Medway): 26% Swanscombe (Dartford): 26% Aylesford & East Stour (Ashford): 26% North Deal (Dover): 26% Romney Marsh (Folkestone and Hythe): 26% Barton (Canterbury): 26% Singlewell (Gravesham): 25% Salmestone (Thanet): 25% Victoria (Ashford): 25% Norman (Ashford): 25% Murston (Swale): 25% Greenhill (Canterbury): 25%.