Another victory for Tory social policy: 100,000 children will be homeless this Christmas

Last Updated: November 3, 2015By
Britain's shame: The number of homeless children in Britain will top 100,000 this Christmas.

Britain’s shame: The number of homeless children in Britain will top 100,000 this Christmas.

This is the sharp edge of ‘caring Conservatism’.

2015 will be the third year running that Vox Political has run an article on the number of children who will be homeless at Christmas – and, for the third year running, the total has increased.

In 2013 it was 87,000 – 7,000 more than predicted by the charity Shelter. In 2014, the total had increased to 96,000. This year, the charity expects more than 100,000 children to be homeless.

Here’s what Shelter has to say about it:

You may not see them on the streets, but they’re still homeless. Because they don’t have homes, they’re living in places like hostels and B&Bs.

“A child’s Christmas should be exciting – eating too much, playing games with family… Wondering if they’ll see the presents they wished for under the tree.

“But 100,000 children might not even have room for a tree – let alone space to sit around a table for Christmas dinner. Plus, their temporary accommodation might be hundreds of miles away from family and friends.

Can you imagine spending Christmas homeless, away from what you know? These children won’t have to – it’s reality.

“100,000 is a hard number to get your head around – it’s the equivalent of four in every school in Britain.

“Why? More and more households had to rely on temporary accommodation in the last few years. And because there aren’t enough homes, these families are trapped there.

“Under such pressure, it’s hard to find somewhere decent to live that’s affordable; close to family and school.

Having a place to sleep isn’t the same as having a home

“If you don’t have rights to stay where you are, your accommodation is unsafe or you’re sleeping rough, you could be homeless. For example, you might be staying with friends or in a hostel, living with poor conditions that affect your health, or at risk of abuse in your home.”

What Shelter won’t tell you is that this is the intended result of government policies designed to turf people the Conservatives deem undesirable out of areas they consider to be desirable and force them to find somewhere else to live – if they can.

The Bedroom Tax, the Benefit Cap, low wages, high private rents and house prices all contribute to this, and are either Tory policies or phenomena the Tories – and their friends – have allowed to go unchecked.

Tories don’t care if these people end up starving on the street, as long as they can make a fat wad of cash out of the space they leave behind.

In 2013, I wrote: “Don’t let a Tory tell you it’s nothing to do with them. They wanted this. In fact, 80,000 homeless children at Christmas is probably not enough for them.”

I take no please in reporting that I appear to have been correct.

Shelter is running an appeal for donations to help provide urgent support for families facing eviction. The best way to foil the Tories’ plans is to help the people those plans endanger. So please visit Shelter’s website and offer what you can.

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7 Comments

  1. Helen November 3, 2015 at 1:27 am - Reply

    Mike, thank you so much for all your notifications. You must spend literally all hours possible researching. I try and share as much as possible on FB to spread the word. I feel you perform a most valuable service and without yourself and others like you there would be only misinformation out there. Thank you.

    • Mike Sivier November 3, 2015 at 10:37 am - Reply

      I don’t spend all my time on this, in fact – but when I see something that glaringly needs addressing, my conscience forces me to write about it.

  2. toocomplex4justice November 3, 2015 at 7:35 am - Reply

    What a lot of these families lack is legal advice, it’s impossible to get free legal representation now so people are bullied and denied their rights by councils and landlords. Nobody should be thrown out of their home and no judge would allow children to be made homeless but they don’t get the opportunity to stop it. This is an evil and calculated cull of the poor and disabled. It may well be that the population needs to be reduced to avoid shortages and harsh measures may be justified, so tax people for having too many kids, put the brakes on immigration, do whatever it takes so long as we all make sacrifices to achieve what needs to be done but don’t victimise children and the defenceless, that’s what cowards and bullys do.
    I really hope the UN will pull this governments pants down and expose them for what they are or otherwise we are in big trouble. I am so ashamed to be british right now.

  3. Graham Loftus November 3, 2015 at 9:54 am - Reply

    The cynic in me can’t wait for loads more articles in the Tory press about families living like lords on benefits, never worked, 25 children, holidays abroad and yet more programmes on Channel 5 about benefit scroungers…………………….. I shall send a request to Jeremy Corbyn to see if he can raise this at PMQ’s if anyone out there agrees with this feel free!

  4. Jim Round November 3, 2015 at 12:03 pm - Reply

    As other commenter have noted, the problem is more deep rooted than figures.
    Ask most non-claimants what the the typical benefits claimant looks like, they will describe those on Channel 4/5.
    There has not been, and is unlikely ever to be, any attempt to work at the many social problems that cause these problems.

  5. Dez November 3, 2015 at 4:05 pm - Reply

    Yes and our Tv chums were out peasant bashing last night exactly that topic with of course loads of details on the income streams and of course snippets around the next generation following closely in their parents foot steps….etc etc .

  6. digger November 5, 2015 at 12:46 pm - Reply

    what do you expect the television was invented to socially engineer people and my how it works!

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