The Robin Hood Tax

The Robin Hood Tax is a tiny tax of 0.05% from international bankers’ transactions that could generate hundreds of billions of pounds every year to stop cuts in crucial public services and help to end child poverty in the UK as well as contributing to the fight against global poverty and climate change.

At Barnardo’s we believe this tax would be the fairest way to ensure that our government has enough money to tackle the outrage of poverty and inequality within our society, which continues to blight the lives of far too many innocent children.

How the tax could help children

A tax on financial transactions could help protect services for the most vulnerable children in our society.

We are in difficult financial times – everyone is having to tighten their belts. At Barnardo’s we are concerned that this could lead to reductions in spending on essential services for the most vulnerable children in our society.

Afterall, despite being the fifth richest country in the world, shockingly, one in three children in the UK are still living in poverty.

But now there is a potential solution on the horizon. A tax on financial transactions could create enough money to protect these vital services for children and provide desperately needed support to their families.

Barnardo's work with vulnerable children

Barnardo’s works with some of the UK’s most vulnerable children and sees the devastating impact living in this grinding poverty has on them and their families. We see parents struggling to feed and clothe their children and others who are unable to heat their home or equip it with furniture. And we see many parents facing impossible choices, like having to decide between buying food and paying the gas bill – between a warm meal and a warm house.

Of course, it is children who suffer the most. Cold living conditions, inadequate clothing and a poor diet put their health at risk. Poverty destroys their childhood in the short term and jeopardises their future in the long term. As adults they are more likely to suffer ill-health, be unemployed or homeless.

We believe it is outrageous that one third of children in the UK have to suffer these consequences when it is avoidable. We believe vulnerable children should not have to pay the price of this recession; to halve child poverty in the UK we need £4bn - a fraction of the sum that could be generated by this tax.

The Robin Hood tax allows us to harness the enormous power held within the city and within our valuable financial trading system to tackle the outrage of poverty and inequality within our society, which continues to blight the lives of far too many innocent children.

We can not and should not miss this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Find out more at: www.robinhoodtax.org.uk