NEARLY 20,000 children are living below the poverty line in Nottingham, a new report claims.
Child poverty is costing the city £216 million per year, according to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) study, published today.
The report also found that just under half of the 20,000 deprived kids live in the Nottingham North constituency, which includes Aspley, Basford, Bestwood, Bilborough and Bulwell.
Mother and daughter Claire Walker, 40, and Nikki Randall, 22, of Aspley, are among those who have had to make cutbacks.
Nikki earns £12,500 year and her husband is unemployed.
He is not eligible for Jobseeker's Allowance as the couple live together, so their income is topped up by working and child tax credits. They have a one-year-old son.
Nikki said: "I do worry about how we're going to manage in the future because he's only going to need more stuff as he gets older.
"We've already made cutbacks. We now shop at Aldi instead of Tesco and only get the bare minimum and we only go out once a month and then we budget ourselves to no more than £15."
Claire, who also has two sons, aged 16 and one, has also had to adjust how she spends.
Together, she and her husband bring home £34,500.
"I know a few families round here who struggle financially," she said. "Even though me and my husband both work, we do find things hard with two children at home.
"We've cut back on heating because it broke a few years ago and we can't afford to get it fixed and we've also started shopping at Aldi."
Across Notts, the number of children living below the poverty line is 43,747, costing the economy £474 million annually.
The research suggests that outside the city, Mansfield has the highest number of children in poverty with 4,644, followed by Ashfield with 4,486 and Bassetlaw with 3,602.
The areas with the lowest levels of child poverty were Rushcliffe, with 1,050 and Broxtowe with 2,032. The relative poverty line is 60 per cent of the national median income, which was £359 per week in 2011-12.
Nottingham North MP Graham Allen said: "I think we've recognised there are serious problems and Nottingham North in particular has high levels of deprivation.
"The long-term plan to tackle that is around early intervention and we've introduced a large number of programmes to help children and young people develop social and emotional capability and that will pay off in the long term.
"There is no such thing as a quick fix, so we have to think long term and in years to come I think we will see the results."
CPAG says the annual national cost of child poverty is £29 billion, which comes from spending on services to deal with the consequences of child poverty, losses in tax receipts from people earning less and spending on benefits for people spending more time out of work as a result of having grown up in poverty.
Alison Garnham, chief executive of CPAG, said: "We hope local campaigners will be able to use our report to encourage their local councillors to do more to end child poverty in their area and support families facing the greatest hardship."
