You might be new to the ‘back-to-school’ routine, or you might be a seasoned prepper, but for so many families, the summer holidays and start of the new school year often means a blowout in family budgets to cover extra expenses such as new school uniforms and shoes, equipment and activities.
The cost of living has been front of mind for several years now, but we don’t often look at how it impacts children. In Barnardos Australia long experience parents who are struggling financially try and protect their children from the worry of ‘not enough money’ however we also know that children feel the stress of feeling different to their peers. Beyond the immediate impacts, childhood poverty can also increase social isolation when money can’t be found for participation in extra-curricular activities and community events.
Being a federal election year, 2025 brings the promise of more discussion about family budgets and the cost of living. It’s a discussion worth having, and while immediate relief is welcome, one-off rebates and discounts are not going to change much for the three quarters of a million Australian children currently living in poverty.
Solving, or at least alleviating childhood poverty, is challenging but possible. While every family has a different story about how they arrived at a point of crisis, the challenges they face to move beyond crisis remain the same. Whether it’s job losses, illness, death of a parent or domestic violence, the challenges of keeping a roof over your head and feeding your family are increasingly steep.
Barnardos Australia has supported thousands of families facing crises like these over the past two years, in ever widening debt traps to cover essential food, electricity or medical costs. We know these parents work hard to protect their children from feeling the pressure by skipping meals themselves and going without. But, when it comes time to celebrate a child’s birthday, participate in a school holiday activity or buy a new school uniform, there is simply no room to move – children miss out.
Being poor is hard work, and families are forced to make impossible choices. Barnardos Australia can offer practical support by providing food/bill relief, negotiating with landlords, liaising with schools about uniform and equipment costs, supporting child health assessments and providing the occasional birthday present. Having someone to support you through a crisis is priceless. Equally, leaving children to face the ongoing impacts of poverty is costly, and risky.
We all share the responsibility for responding with a human lens to challenges facing families and children and the long-term implications. It can be all too easy to forget that the impact of child poverty has a long tail into adulthood, and disadvantage for the whole of life. This may not happen for every child, but it continues to happen for too many. The missed opportunities of childhood can compound into lack of educational opportunity and ongoing employment difficulties, chronic physical and mental health problems, and severe social isolation and disadvantage.
Solutions like raising the rate of income support so necessities are affordable, building more affordable and social housing, and providing expanded pregnancy and early childhood support are not new, and so badly needed for children in struggling families. Providing for children’s safety and future success is both an ethical and an economic necessity.
Like many other parents and grandparents, my wish for the new school year is that every child has a positive year full of discovery and optimism. And Barnardos Australia wants this commitment from all levels of Australian government, and all Australians, in 2025. #ChampionsforChildren #MakingChildrenVisible Champions – Barnardos Australia
By Deidre Cheers published on Linked In
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