MPs conclude 2010 child poverty target can be met
03.03.08
Commenting on the release of the report The best start in life? Alleviating deprivation, improving social mobility, and eradicating child poverty by the Work and Pensions Select Committee, the Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Kate Green, said:
“This is an excellent report with many important steps that will help Britain succeed in our historic goal of ending child poverty. Britain has the wealth to end child poverty, it now requires the moral courage of the nation to ensure the necessary steps are taken.
“The report leaves no doubt that the promise to halve child poverty by 2010 can be met, but it requires bold action in next week’s Budget. As a member of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, we are calling for the £4 billion investment to be made that will ensure the promise to Britain’s poorest children is not broken.”
Commenting on the Committee’s recommendations on the Government’s welfare reform agenda, she added:
“The Government must act on important warnings that a rush to force lone parents into the unsuitable Jobseekers Allowance regime may go badly wrong. The New Deal for Lone Parents has been very successful because lone parents want to work. Future success should build on this by addressing barriers like lack of childcare and employer prejudice, not by scrapping a voluntary programme that works.
“James Purnell act on his department’s commitment to child poverty proof every policy by implementing Committee’s call to assess the impact of benefit sanctions on the poorest children. Punishing children if parents are unable to work is simply wrong.”
Notes for editors
For further information please contact:
Tim Nichols
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
tnichols@cpag.org.uk
www.cpag.org.uk/press/030308.htm
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