Child Poverty Action Group

Responding to the government’s announcement that they will cover up to 85 per cent of childcare costs for some low-income families eligible for universal credit (UC) from April 2016, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group said:

“We welcome this government recognition that the high costs of childcare in the UK act as a significant deterrent for all families who want to get back to work or work longer hours. But this scheme would do very little to help the families that need it most, or to reduce child poverty.

New analysis for Child Poverty Action Group by Landman Economics has found that an increase of 600,000 children in absolute child poverty is likely between 2010 and 2015.

The analysis is made on the basis of the Coalition tax and benefit spending policies implemented since 2010, and planned to be implemented up to 2015. It is net of any improvements to child poverty from Universal Credit.

The Department for Work and Pensions has issued an ‘urgent bulletin’ announcing that the Secretary of State has decided to drop his pursuit of an appeal at the Supreme Court on a case he had lost at the Court of Appeal.

A speech today on the causes of child poverty by Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, made no mention of his department’s evidence that in-work problems like low wages and low hours are a factor in the majority of child poverty cases. Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said:

“Now is not a time to airbrush the main causes of child poverty out of the picture and move the goal posts. With 5 million people paid less than the living wage, it is no surprise that official figures show children are much more likely to be in poverty because they have a parent who is a security guard, care worker or cleaner than a drug addict.

The government has revealed in answer to a parliamentary question that 200,000 children will be pushed into relative income poverty by its bill to cut social security benefits and tax credits in real terms. This result from a restriction of annual uprating to just 1%, which is below inflation.

This will mean Coalition policies are set to increase child poverty by a million children by 2020 on the relative income measure.

In response to the publication of the DWP impact assessment on the Welfare Benefits Uprating Bill, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said:

A new report published today by Child Poverty Action Group, with contributions from a range of experts, reveals that the government’s welfare benefit uprating legislation is based on bogus claims and is a poverty-producing bill that will further exclude the poorest workers, jobseekers, carers and disabled people from the mainstream of society.

Commenting in response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty action Group, said:

“Despite all the talk, working families are once again at the front of the queue for spending cuts. With 6 in 10 poor children living with a working parent, real terms cuts to tax credits, housing and child benefits are grim news.

“Today’s measures give a net income boost to 3 out of 5 people in the wealthiest half of the population, whilst everyone in the poorest half will see their income cut. If we are all in it together, some of us – the poorest – are in it deeper than the rest.

Commenting ahead of the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty action Group, said:

“We're looking for targeted help for families with children struggling to make ends meet as living costs rise.

“Ministers talk about helping the 'strivers', but the truth is that the 'strivers' keep being short-changed. The lowest paid families - often people working long hours with little pay - have been near the front of the queue for cuts as billions in tax credits that protect the low paid have been taken away from family budgets. 

Commenting on the publication of the first official statistics on the performance of the Work Programme, Imran Hussain, Head of Policy for Child Poverty Action Group, said:

“Most people leave JSA and get back into work very quickly. The work programme is meant to help those who face greater challenges getting into work, and on this it is clearly failing.

“These results are grim for people desperately hoping to move into work. The danger is that this becomes yet another top down bureaucratic programme that promises much, but delivers little.