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DECEMBER 2008
Dear Colleague
Welcome to the latest News from CPAG, keeping you updated on our campaigns, policy work and other activities.
2008 has been a busy year in which our lobbying helped make poor children the top priority in the Budget in March and helped the year end with confirmation that the Government would provide time for a bill to enshrine the child poverty target in legislation.
We also saw 10,000 people join the biggest ever event to end UK child poverty at the Keep the Promise rally in October. However, the latest child poverty figures saw a rise in child poverty for the second year running, last month's Pre-Budget Report was disappointing and we have serious concerns about welfare reform plans.
Your support has been essential to our success in the last year and will be vital to ensure we are able to effectively campaign in 2009 on important areas like welfare reform. We are ever grateful for your support and wish you a fun festive season and a very happy 2009!
Kate Green
Chief Executive
Campaigns news
New bill will threaten welfare rights
The Government has just announced the next stage of its welfare reform plans in a white paper published ahead of a Welfare Reform Bill in the new year.
We strongly oppose plans for new sanctions for disabled people and lone parents. We also oppose cranking up sanctions for long-term Jobseekers Allowance claimants and forcing them to work for benefit.
Child Poverty Action Group wants an entitlement to high quality tailored support for all claimants who wish to work at some point in the future. Claimants don’t need compulsion to take up high quality health, training and employment services that wealthier people take for granted.
The Government's welfare reform strategy is also at odds with the current economic situation. In a recession-hit jobs market, harsh new sanctions are senseless, unfair and a tremendous bureaucratic burden on overstretched Jobcentre Plus staff.
We are undertaking a major lobbying campaign to overturn the regressive parts of the welfare reform agenda. We will keep you posted on how you can help with our parliamentary campaigning in the new year.
Keep in touch with latest developments at http://www.cpag.org.uk/welfarereform/
Keep the Promise - join the online rally
 The Keep the Promise rally on 4 October was a tremendous success with over 10,000 people.
Many CPAG members were there on the day, but many others could not make it to London and had to offer their support in spirit.
Now you can all show your support by joining the online rally.
The Campaign has created a virtual Trafalgar Square. Choose your balloon and write your own message, which will be delivered to the Prime Minister.
Please show the Government you want them to use the Budget in March 2009 to Keep the Promise to halve child poverty by 2010.
Join the virtual rally at www.endchildpoverty.org.uk/promise
Free school meals success
CPAG in Scotland's intensive lobbying and campaigning on free school meals has helped gain an important victory in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament has approved legislation enabling local authorities to roll out free school meals to children in the first three years of primary education. We are pressing to ensure all local authorities roll out this important new provision as explicitly agreed by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) and the Scottish Government.
Meanwhile the government in Westminster has approved trials of free school meals in primary schools. This step is welcome as far as it goes, but CPAG believes that case is already well proven and will continue campaigning for a full roll out of free school meals, starting with primary pupils at the earliest opportunity.
In December the Guardian ran a front page story, quoting CPAG, on the number of poor children not getting free school meals right now - you can read the guardian story at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/dec/16/school-meals-funding
CPAG's Chief Executive Kate Green responded to this article arguing for universal free school meals, you can read her 'comment is free' article at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/dec/16/schoolmeals-schools
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Other news
Fuel poverty
CPAG has joined forces with several social justice, environmental and consumer organisations, including Friends of the Earth, Age Concern and Consumer Focus, for a united front on ending fuel poverty.
The Warm Homes Act requires the Government to eradicate fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010. But progress has gone into reverse and there are expected to 5 million households in fuel poverty this winter, many of which contain children.
You can read the coalition's 10 point plan to eradicate fuel poverty in our joint Fuel Poverty Charter on at CPAG's campaigns page.
A Fuel Poverty Eradication Bill is planned by the coalition for presentation to Parliament in 2009. It will help ensure fuel poverty is eradicated through a major energy efficiency programme for existing housing and mandatory provision of social tariffs by the energy companies to provide affordable energy for every fuel poor household.
Meanwhile the Scottish Government has announced a new Energy Assistance Package to include advice on social tariffs and energy efficiency improvements for fuel poor homes - a real success for CPAG's work in the Scottish Children's Fuel Poverty Coalition.
New edition of Debt Advice Handbook published
 The new edition of CPAG's Debt Advice Handbook has just been published. With the country heading into recesssion and the purse strings for millions of families getting tighter, it is more important than ever for people to get high quality advice on debt management and their legal rights. This Handbook helps advisers provide the best possible advice to people in financial difficulties
You can order a copy of the Handbook and other CPAG publications here.
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Child Poverty Action Group is a charity registered in England and Wales (registration number 294841) and in Scotland (registration number SC039339).
Company limited by guarantee registered in England (registration number 1993854).
Registered office: 94 White Lion Street, London N1 9PF. VAT no. 690 8081 17.
www.cpag.org.uk
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