Cutbacks threaten to increase child poverty

Wednesday 13th June 2012

The child poverty approach pursued between 1998 and 2010 was broad-based, made a significant and long-lasting difference to families with children and reduced child poverty on a scale and at a pace unmatched by other industrial nations during the period.

This verdict comes from a group of leading national experts in a landmark report published by Child Poverty Action Group, which marks the half-way point to ending child poverty by 2020.

Between 1998 and 2010, child poverty was reduced by around a million children with many other children's lives being positively affected by the polices used; but the ambitious interim target for 2010, set by the last government, will have been missed. However, if the rate of poverty reduction observed over the past decade could be sustained, the 2020 target for eliminating child poverty in the UK would be achieved only seven years later in 2027.

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty action Group, said: "The verdict is clear that prioritising child poverty across government improved the childhoods and life chances of millions of children and strengthened our economy; but even so, much more needed to be done given the size of the challenge.

"The warnings for the current government are crystal clear. Under current policies they risk wiping out all these hard-won gains. Unless their strategy improves, their legacy threatens to be the worst child poverty record of any government for a generation.

"Some critics of the targets to reduce child poverty say we should downsize our ambition and move the goalposts. But that would destroy the life chances of millions of children and force future governments and taxpayers to pick up the bill for the massive and miserable social and economic costs of poverty.

"As the Prime Minister has said, child poverty is a moral disgrace and an economic waste.  Other countries in Europe already have the low levels of child poverty we are targeting, so nobody should make excuses for why we can't do better for British children."

Kitty Stewart (London School of Economics) who contributed a section on the reduction in relative income poverty, said: "Without Labour's changes to the tax-benefit system, there would have been around 1.8 million more children living in poverty today. Claims that money was thrown into tax credits with little measurable return are simply mistaken, as the evidence shows that the investment paid off, with future benefits still to come. In families most at risk of poverty, such as lone parent households, we observe higher self-esteem, less unhappiness and less risky behaviour among teenagers. That's not only a good thing for those young people today, but it should mean better life chances in the long-run too."

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George Bailey