On a noisy intersection, between a temp agency and a convenience store, the narrow windows of the Clacton School Uniform Bank are already decorated for Christmas, with garlands and red boots. It looks like a nice shop, but it’s a charity that collects school uniforms that are too small to give to children from families in trouble. Inside, Monday November 17, Carolyn Doyle, 62, the place’s founder and three volunteers were busy wearing white shirts, blazers or pleated skirts, all classified by size and school (each has its own color). It’s a long way back to school but the place is always full: “The children lost a lot of things. Earlier a grandmother came looking for her grandson’s tie which he lost in the square. We also provided supplies for the school children who had just moved in.”, explains Carolyn Doyle, a former palliative care nurse.
We are in Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, in the heart of the constituency of Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing British Reform party. The city has seen better days: a seaside resort popular with London’s working class, it was abandoned by the advent of cheap flights to the Mediterranean and is one of the poorest areas in England. According to the End Child Poverty Coalition, almost a third of children in Clacton-on-Sea come from households living below the poverty line (with incomes below 60% of the median income). The numbers are much greater in the Jaywick district, to the west of the city, which is considered the most deprived district in England, according to England’s Department for Local Government. Nationally, the proportion of children living below the poverty line has remained at an alarming 31% since 2020, compared with 27% in 2011, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
This increase is largely due to the difficulties faced by large families related to the introduction of a family allowance cap on two children, introduced in 2015 by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron’s government (families received nothing more from the third child). Without the proliferation of food banks, uniform banks or others baby bank (there are more than 3,000 in the UK in total), families have to fend for themselves, while the cost of living crisis has made social safety nets even more necessary.
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