Recommendation 25

DWP should commission research examining, in depth, the impacts of the pandemic on children living in families in low income. It should publish the results of this 54 Children in poverty: Measurement and targets analysis alongside its March 2022 Households Below Average Income statistics. DWP should also publish early findings from its longer-term project with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office for National Statistics to understand the differential impacts of the pandemic. DWP should use the lessons from its exercise with the Department of Health and Social Care to inform how it might better estimate the health and well-being impacts of future changes to social security affecting children and families.