milies in poverty had risen as a result of welfare reforms. Rising child poverty is driven by the increase in relative poverty among families with three or more children (from 35% in 2010–11 to 46% in 2022–23) who are excluded from claiming Child Tax Credit or Universal Credit for more than two children following the introduction of the two-child limit policy in 2017 (IFS, 2024b) • Nearly half said service demand had risen in relation to families with no recourse to public funds (NRPF). For families with pre-settled status and mothers who were survivors of domestic abuse on dependent visas and/or with NRPF, statutory children’s social care was often the only route to access housing support and basic living costs • Nearly two-thirds said that poverty-driven demand has grown from families where one or more parents were in work • Financial pressures of the cost-of-living crisis had a disproportionate effect on families with pre-existing vulnerabilities; respondents suggested that poverty was often, but not always, linked with parental substance misuse, mental ill health, domestic abuse and family conflict. 2.2 Housing and homelessness pressures We are seeing on a daily basis families experiencing homelessness and struggling to cope with rent increases… We are funding landlords and paying increased rents to keep our most vulnerable families in their homes, this is not sustainable (Survey, Unitary, West Midlands Region) We are seeing an increasing influx of families rehoused into cheaper accommodation, often from London boroughs… Moving families 300 miles away from their support networks is going to escalate risk. Housing policy drives a lot of that… It’s really significant, and it ends up disproportionately impacting some communities.... We looked at two areas of acute depr