13
March BBC online feature by Martin Barnes
Child poverty progress 'disappointing'
- 'Four years
ago the Prime Minister pledged to eradicate child poverty within
20 years. The pledge is ambitious, and rightfully so. Any decrease
in the number of children in poverty should be welcomed, but the
relatively small fall, revealed by the latest statistics, is disappointing.
The Government can and should do more, but progress is being made
and this should be acknowledged.'
September
2002
Tax
credits fact sheet
- From April
2003 a new tax credits scheme comes into force that will radically
alter the current social security and tax credits systems. The
new scheme has been heralded by the Government as a means to tackle
child poverty, poor work incentives and persistent poverty among
working people.
January
2001
Children's
tax credit
- The children's
tax credit (CTC) is a new income tax relief for people with a
child under the age of 16. It can reduce the amount of income
tax you pay by up to £10 a week or £520 a year. It
will be introduced from 6 April 2001.
July
2000
Benefits
for widowers
- This briefing
summarises recent developments on widowers' claims for benefits
and the steps that can be taken to challenge a decision that there
is no entitlement to widowers' benefits under UK law.
April
2000
Briefing
on the Social Security (Work-Focused Interviews) Regulations 2000
- These regulations,
which came into force on 3rd April 2000, relate to the introduction
of compulsory work-focused interviews as a requirement for receiving
benefits. They relate to sections 57 and 58 of the Welfare Reform
and Pensions Act 1999. They are integral to the ONE scheme. People
claiming benefit are allocated a personal adviser who deals with
all their claims from one office and interviews them about their
work history, prospects and opportunities.
March 2000
Changes
to the child support scheme
-
The shortcomings
of the current child support system are well documented. Reform
is urgently needed.
- 1.8 million
children receive no maintenance.
- Only
47 per cent of non-resident parents pay all their maintenance.
Thirty per cent pay nothing.
- Only
62 per cent of maintenance applications are cleared within
the target 22 weeks.
- Even
now only 77 per cent of CSA assessments are correct.
The measures
contained in the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security
Bill are directed to providing a simpler, more efficient scheme
that is of actual benefit to the poorest children. CPAG therefore
gives overall support to the new scheme. But we are concerned
that some families are pushed further into poverty. We believe
our concerns can be addressed without undermining the principles
of the new scheme.
January 2000
The
impact of the child support scheme on children in second families
- The measures contained in
the Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Bill are directed
to providing a simpler, more efficient scheme that is of actual
benefit to the poorest children. Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG)
therefore gives overall support to the new scheme. We have some
concerns which we believe can be addressed without undermining
the principles of the new scheme. This briefing concentrates on
the impact on low-income second families.
January 2000
The impact of the child support
scheme on parents with care and their children
October 1999
Working
families' tax credit
- CPAG welcomes the priority
the Government has placed on 'tackling the scourge of child poverty'
and the commitment it has so far shown in successive Budgets.
A centrepiece of policy to date was the introduction, on 5 October
1999, of working families' tax credit (WFTC) and disabled person's
tax credit (DPTC).
October 1999
School
meals and healthy eating
-
The development of the school meal
service from in the post-war years created a platform from which
nutritional poverty affecting children could be tackled in a
systematic way. Legislation in recent years has significantly
altered this by:
- Restricting entitlement to free
school meals to families on income support and income-based
jobseeker's allowance, and
- Abolishing minimum nutritional
standards and price controls.
The recent announcement that nutritional
standards are to be reintroduced from May 2002 is welcome.
October 1999
School
meals in Scotland
Social fund
- CPAG believes that the social fund
should be a priority for reform. In our view it is not acceptable that claimants should be
in a position where they are forced to live without beds, cooking and heating facilities,
bedding and many other essentials that most people in our society at the end of the
twentieth century take for granted.
Social Security and Child Support (Decisions and
Appeals) Regulations 1999
- CPAG opposed many of the changes to
social security and child support decision making and appeals procedures when the Social
Security Bill was going through Parliament. We understand the concern about the
Government’s concerns about waiting times for appeals. It remains our view, however,
that a concerted effort should have been made to improve the quality of first tier
decisions and explanations staff are able to give to claimants. Once this had been done, a
proper evaluation could have been made about whether changes to the appeals system were
necessary.
Widows and widowers
- Entitlement depends on the husband
having satisfied the contribution conditions (these are waived if he died of an industrial
accident or disease). The widows pension and widowed mothers allowance are paid at a
reduced rate if inadequate contributions have been paid. Entitlement ceases if she
remarries and for any period for which she is cohabiting.
Working
families' tax credit
- In an earlier
briefing on proposals for a working families' tax credit (WFTC),
CPAG welcomed the increased generosity of the new scheme, but
expressed concerns that it failed to assist those on the lowest
incomes leaving many families unable to achieve a ‘low cost
but acceptable budget’. Measures announced in the Budget
on 9th March 1999, in particular the £2.50 increase in level
of the adult credit for WFTC and a significant increase of £4.70
for the WFTC credit and personal allowance in other means-tested
benefits for children under 11, have improved this. Further changes,
such as the small increases in child benefit from April 2000,
build on it.
Joint
claims for jobseeker's allowance
- Currently, jobseeker's
allowance is claimed by one partner on behalf of a couple. The
Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill introduces a requirement for
both partners of a couple to sign on. We understand that the intention
is to introduce it for people born after a certain date. The intention
is to bring in people currently aged 18-24. These people are to
remain subject to the requirement for both partners to sign on.
The intention is to draw these partners in to the New Deal for
Partners of the Unemployed.
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