South Yorkshire Children Living in Poverty this Christmas
At YesTax we are all too aware that Christmas will look different for many families this year. However, children living in deprived areas will undoubtedly face a much harder winter.
Whilst our own children will be excitedly writing lists for Santa, filled with presents they hope to get, many children living in poverty won’t expect to get any presents. For those that do, there is a stark contrast between the national average spent on children compared to what is spent this time of year on children living in poverty.
Over the Christmas period, a combination of colder temperatures and spending time at home significantly worsens the impact of fuel poverty.
According to figures from the Department for Work and Pensions 1 in 3 children are living in poverty in South Yorkshire. This then rises to a heart-breaking 45% in the Brightside and Hillsborough area, almost 20% higher than the national average.
Ref: https://endchildpoverty.org.uk/child-poverty/
To make some small contribution, and to try and lessen the impact the deep poverty has on children within our local area, YesTax has co-ordinated with Arbourthorne School and South Yorkshire’s Social Services to provide a bounty of gifts for children from less privileged backgrounds.
From chocolate selection boxes for pupils to working hand-in-hand with leaders from Social Services North and South offices, to match the gifts we bought to those that needed them, we hope that we can bring a small amount of cheer back to the season.
"I wanted to express my sincere and grateful thanks to you for your very generous donation to help us get every child in school a Christmas gift. It’s seriously never been as bad in all my 15 years at the school. This will help bring real happiness and excitement for the children and their parents.”
Vanessa, head teacher, Arbourthorne School in Sheffield
YesTax. Positively Better.