Sarah Ruscoe said poverty left her sleeping on a sofa while her daughter Sabrina had a bed propped up on books. On Wednesday, the Welsh Affairs Committee opened an inquiry into ending child poverty in Wales after MPs heard the problem had stayed stubbornly high for 20 years.
Ruscoe, from Barry, said: “I was sleeping on the sofa, she had a bed that was propped up on books. One of the legs had fallen off completely.” She said she worried the bed would collapse in the night, and added: “It was getting a bit distressing.”
Wales child poverty inquiry
The committee opened the inquiry this week as MPs examined why child poverty remains so high in Wales. Wales has the highest child poverty rate of any UK nation, and the latest official statistics show 32% of children there live in relative poverty after housing costs.
That figure is measured against a household income below 60% of the UK median. MPs also heard that the broad picture of one in three children living in relative poverty in Wales has not changed in 20 years. For families dealing with it now, the inquiry is the first formal parliamentary step aimed at testing what policies could shift that pattern.
Sarah Ruscoe and Sabrina
Ruscoe is a single mum out of work because of a health condition and said every year seems to be getting worse as she struggled to make her benefits cover essentials. She said: “There’s so much I want to give my daughter - poverty means I can’t.”
Three years ago, she struggled to afford to replace Sabrina’s ropey second or third hand bed. A charity eventually paid for a new bed for the 11-year-old, and Ruscoe said: “It meant she had somewhere safe. It’s a little nest now. We decorated it.” Action for Children paid for the cabin bunk and mattress and provides financial support to thousands of low income families in Wales each year.
Action for Children support
The bed story sits inside a wider question the inquiry must answer: what specific measures can lift families out of poverty without leaving them trying to patch together essentials year after year. The committee has started that work, but the next practical test is whether it can turn those hearings into recommendations that change how support reaches children like Sabrina.
Related poverty inquiry update sits alongside the wider debate over how support is delivered, but the committee’s inquiry will be judged by whether it produces measures that reach families before another year passes.
