(JTA) — A new report warns of a sharp rise in child poverty in Britain’s haredi Orthodox Jewish community.
The report says the rise in child poverty is due to the haredi community’s large families, lack of secular education and work skills, and cuts in both charitable giving and state social benefits.
The issue is "most acute" among the haredi community, where "the alarm bells should be ringing loudly," according to the report, which was issued last week by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London.
"The potentially toxic mix of a paucity of professional skills, a growing number of mouths to feed, a reduction in government support and a likely diminution of charitable donations all point towards the probability of a noteworthy increase in child poverty and deprivation in the coming years,” the report said.
The census indicated more than 52,000 Jewish children live in Britain. Overall, it showed that nearly 8 percent lived in overcrowded conditions and 8.5 percent lived in households where no adult was employed; more than one-fifth of these children lived in Hackney.
Outside the haredi community, instances of childhood poverty were "very low," according to the report.
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