Child poverty target in doubt

13 Dec 07
The government's high-profile campaign to halve child poverty by 2010 came under stinging criticism last week as two reports cast serious doubt on its ability to meet the target.

14 December 2007

The government's high-profile campaign to halve child poverty by 2010 came under stinging criticism last week as two reports cast serious doubt on its ability to meet the target.

The Treasury select committee expressed concern that the government's failure to meet the deadline would represent a 'conscious decision to leave hundreds of thousands of children in poverty for longer than is necessary or desirable'.

And the annual report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on poverty and social exclusion found that overall child poverty levels were the same in 2005/06 as in 2002/03. Childhood poverty is defined as living in households on 60% or less of the average household income.

Peter Kenway, co-author of the report, said: 'Progress on child poverty has stalled at a level that is only halfway to the target set for two years ago.

'Tax credits may be working, but they are not enough on their own.'

The JRF report said the most serious setback was an increase of 200,000 children living in poverty in 2005/06, taking the total to 3.8 million – or one in three children if housing costs are taken into account.

In 1999, Labour committed itself to reducing child poverty to 3.1 million by April 2005. The government is still 500,000 short of reaching this original target.

The report also found that while tax credits had been beneficial to many families, low wages continue to be a major problem, as half of all the children living below the poverty threshold are in working families. The public sector is the largest employer of low-paid staff over the age of 25, the JRF added.

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, agreed that more radical policies were necessary.

'We cannot afford not to address the educational failure, health costs and social division that poverty brings to our communities,' she said. 'The culture of inequality in Britain has a high cost to the nation.'

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