Time running short to keep 2010 child poverty promise

Commenting on today’s speech to members of the Campaign to End Child Poverty by Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, Kate Green, the Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said:

“The culture of inequality in Britain that leaves one in three children below the poverty line is a moral disgrace and an economic disaster.

“The Government is to be congratulated for putting years of rising child poverty into reverse and for its leadership on the vision to end child poverty by 2020. We strongly welcome the extra £100 million investment for disabled children announced by Ed Balls today. But there is now an urgent need to invest more in every child’s future success through fair family incomes, or we will not reach the target of halving child poverty by 2010.

“The make or break moment for meeting the 2010 target has not yet passed, but time is short. As a member of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, we call on the Treasury to prioritise family security through investment in tax credits and child benefit. Unless the Treasury acts decisively and soon, they will undermine the new Child Poverty Unit’s work to end child poverty by 2020 and break the Government’s promise to Britain’s 3.8 million children living in poverty.”

Notes for editors

• CPAG is a member of the Campaign to End Child Poverty

For further information please contact:
Tim Nichols
CPAG Press Officer
Tel. 020 7812 5216 or 07816 909302
tnichols@cpag.org.uk