“People shouldn’t have to be worried about going broke all the time.” The views of primary school children on their needs, government support for families and Universal Credit

Bidmead, Elaine and Williams, Karissa and Zerbi, Catherine El and Cheetham, Mandy and Gathercole, Cathryn (2026) “People shouldn’t have to be worried about going broke all the time.” The views of primary school children on their needs, government support for families and Universal Credit. The International Journal of Children's Rights.

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Abstract

Universal Credit (UC) is a UK social security payment to unemployed and low-income adults which includes an “additional element” for children. UC is criticised for inadequate payments and design features which impact children’s rights to provision, protection and participation. Children’s voices are noticeably absent from academic studies and policy documents on UC, which focus instead on the views, experiences and behaviours of adults. This article is novel as it reports findings from a pilot study that used creative methods to explore the views of primary school aged children on government support for families and UC. 33 children aged 6 to 11 years participated; they offered reasoned and eloquent accounts of their needs and the impacts of not having them met and held views on issues of poverty, homelessness, welfare, inequality and injustice which they articulated clearly.