421: Poverty, Policy, and Politics. A Mind the Kids podcast

How does research actually change government policy? In this episode of Mind the Kids, hosts Dr Jane Gilmour (UCL) and Professor Umar Toseeb (University of York) sit down with Baroness Ruth Lister — Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at Loughborough University, Fellow of the British Academy, and a Labour peer in the House of Lords — to unpack how evidence, political will and public appetite combine (or collide) to shape social policy for children living in poverty.

This conversation goes behind the headlines of the UK's child poverty strategy, including the abolition of the two-child benefit limit from April 2026 — a change expected to be the single biggest reduction in child poverty any UK government has delivered at a stroke, after CPAG research linked the policy to roughly 109 children entering poverty every day.

In this episode we cover:

– How the House of Lords scrutinises legislation, and Baroness Lister's role as a backbench "critical friend"

– Why politicians cherry-pick evidence — and when evidence gets overridden by ideology or public appetite

– The real story behind scrapping the two-child benefit limit, and why the benefit cap remains in place despite similar evidence of harm

– Why UK child poverty sits at 27% (down from around 30% following a measurement change) and what's really driving it — frozen benefits, insecure work, and rising housing costs

– The civil service vs. ministers vs. MPs: who academics should really be talking to for policy impact

– Why "child poverty," not "family poverty," was the deliberately chosen framing that built public support

– The power of lived experience in policymaking, including the Changing Realities project and the Timms PIP review

– Interpersonal relationships and community interventions as a positive, low-cost buffer against the harms of poverty

– Why child poverty is a mental health issue — and how squeezed welfare budgets often resurface as pressure on CAMHS and schools