The streets where it’s too expensive to work
The article highlights the severe child poverty crisis in Oldham, particularly in Oldham West, Chadderton, and Royton, where 54% of children live in households with below-average incomes. Parents, especially single mothers, struggle to afford basic necessities like food, childcare, and rent, often making difficult sacrifices. The government's new child poverty taskforce aims to address the issue, but immediate relief is lacking.
Featherstall Road, Oldham — A three-year-old boy named Zayaan zips a silver toy car through the air, giggling as his mother guides the pram past shuttered shops and rubbish-strewn alleys. He does not notice the repossession notice taped to one metal grille or the fact that more than half the children who share this Lancashire constituency grow up in poverty.
Official figures released this month show 54 per cent of youngsters in Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton live below the poverty line — the highest rate in north-west England and one of the worst in the country. With children making up almost a quarter of the local population, that translates to roughly 28,000 boys and girls in households where income is less than 60 per cent of the national median.
“Doesn’t surprise me at all,” shrugs 21-year-old Nadia, pausing outside a boarded-up store. “This is Oldham.”
Parents here say the first battle is the simplest: putting food on the table. Jane Fox, 29, lists her monthly outgoings while rocking a toddler on her hip and pushing a pram with the other arm: £600 rent, £50 council tax, £700 part-time childcare. “I’m literally working but can’t afford the childcare fees,” she says. “What do you expect me to do?” Made redundant after Christmas because her youngest kept falling ill, she now walks everywhere to save bus fare. “You put your babies first.”
A 23-year-old mother, who asked not to be named, pawned her own mother’s gold ring before Christmas to buy presents and a hospital-trip fare. “Basic necessities shouldn’t be so expensive that you have to get yourself in trouble just to care for your kids,” she says. She became pregnant at 17 and still borrows £10 or £20 from relatives most weeks.
Liana, 40, stopped working two years ago while waiting for surgery. Her weekly shop has doubled from £50-£80 to £180-£200. “I get to the checkout and have to decide: no, we can’t have that this week,” she sighs. “The government need to provide more help for single mothers — and for those who can’t work for medical reasons.”
Ministers insist help is coming. A newly formed child-poverty taskforce is due to publish its UK-wide strategy this spring, and the Department for Work and Pensions says increases to the National Living Wage, benefit uprating and a new Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions will support 700,000 of the poorest families.
On Featherstall Road, Nadia watches Zayaan offer his toy car to a passer-by. “I grew up here,” she says. “But I wish I could live anywhere else.”
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