The don't starve families campaign goes to 10 Downing Street on Tuesday 27th February at 6pm

 This is the letter we will take.

Dear Prime Minister

We write to you regarding the comments from Cllr Jas Athwal, the Leader of Redbridge Council at Council meetings that Redbridge has the third worst financial settlement in London from central government.

As a consequence Redbridge is proposing substantial cuts to services at their budget on the 29th February 2024.

We note with concern cuts to the council tax reduction fund for the most vulnerable residents. Especially in light of the BBC report dated 10th November 2023 saying  “There were 3,743 deaths in children in the year ending March 2023 - up from 3,452 the previous year, estimates for England suggest.” 

The report adds:

“The figures suggest the steepest rise in deaths was for children under five. Researchers are doing more work to understand the factors behind this.”

The statistics above are published by the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), the government funded research department tasked with tracking English child deaths.

Our concern is that the two child tax credits cap is behind this increase in deaths. Should this be the case, then the critics of this policy who claimed it amounts to a type of eugenics will have been vindicated. Stephen Kinnock MP said when the bill was introduced:  'It's simply not pragmatic and it is awfully reminiscent of some kind of eugenics policy' 

NCMD research needs to be completed urgently to discover:

Is there a disproportionately higher number of deaths of children who are subject to the two child tax benefit cap?

Is there evidence that in poorer families an increase in the number of children is linked to an increase in children dying?

Disabled children are protected from the two child benefit, nonetheless, research should be carried out to discover if the two child tax credit cap leads to higher death rates for disabled children in bigger families.

Are the cuts to looked after children budgets leading to higher death rates for these children?

A recording at nototheredbridgecuts.blogspot.com/2024/02/teachers-in-redbridge-saying-poverty-is.html dated 22nd February 2024 shows teaching staff reporting children coming to school hungry and in accommodation so crowded that have to use the school toilets immediately they come to school.

The teachers also say poverty in the most deprived schools is getting worse.

Therefore we ask you to make an emergency payment to Redbridge Council to prevent these cuts taking place.

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