Cameron must now confirm he would not scrap child poverty targets

Commenting on David Cameron’s speech today on poverty, in which he quoted Kate Green, Child Poverty Action Group’s Chief Executive, Kate responded:

“Cameron must back his aspiration to make British poverty history with a clear commitment to close the gap between the richest and the poorest. If the party that presided over a massive growth in the inequality gap does not commit to closing it, today’s promises to end British poverty will be broken tomorrow.

“With half of children living in poverty coming from working homes, the Conservatives must not tiptoe around the issue of poverty pay. They must send a clear message to employers who do not give a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.

“Cameron’s promise to children in poverty will not be credible until he confirms that a Conservative administration will not scrap the Government’s targets to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020. As a member of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, we call on him to make this commitment during the Campaign’s Month of Action which starts tomorrow, along with a pledge to provide the £4billion investment needed to reach the 2010 target.”

Notes for editors

1. The full CPAG press release, from which David Cameron quoted today, is reprinted below and refers to tax credit reforms that DWP say are now having an impact on previous problems:

PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN TAX CREDITS MUST BE RESTORED, SAYS CPAG (31.05.06)
Public confidence in the tax credit system must be restored, a leading charity said today as figures were published showing that £1.8 billion was overpaid in 2004/05. 529,000 families were overpaid more than £1,000. In the same year, £556 million of underpayments were made.

Alongside other organisations, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has campaigned for reform of the tax credit system to help low-income families and many of the changes it has called for are now being implemented.

CPAG Chief Executive Kate Green said today:

“Tax credits have helped millions of low-income families, but they have not always worked as successfully as they should have done. Behind the £1.8 billion figure are the stories of thousands of families who have struggled to survive when overpayments have been clawed back by the Revenue.

“We must now look to the future and a package of reforms now being implemented should both radically reduce the scope for overpayments and limit the impact of recovery on the poorest families in future years. The Revenue must ensure these reforms work successfully so that public confidence in the tax credits system is fully restored.

“CPAG would like to see further reforms including a statutory right of appeal against overpayment decisions and the option of face-to-face advice for claimants who need it, perhaps by basing Revenue staff in local Jobcentre Plus offices.

“As we move forward from the problems of the past CPAG urges politicians from all parties to commit to further investment in tax credits as a way of lifting children out of poverty and helping parents back to work.”

ENDS

2. CPAG has major concerns about the Conservatives proposals to make savings from welfare reform for other spending plans:

• Assumed savings are unrealistic and will take years – as has been acknowledged by Oliver Letwin in comments printed in the Independent newspaper on 1.10.07.
• “Tougher sanctions”, as proposed by George Osbourne for disabled people are not shown to be effective and opposed are in principle by CPAG as they will cause severe hardship to vulnerable people, including to the children of disabled adults, who are at very high risk of poverty.
• Their proposals do not address employer prejudice against disabled people.
• Transferring the risk to private and voluntary sector will be hard to achieve as it will undermine trust relationships between personal adviser and claimant; and capacity in the sector does not exist on scale proposed by Osbourne.
• Private and voluntary sector providers have a more realistic sense of the challenges faced by their clients than Osbourne, so are unlikely to take on "no-win, no-fee" risk on the cheap or on the basis of unrealistic expectations, meaning contract costs are likely to escalate significantly from Conservative estimates.

3. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has indicated that the figures the Conservatives are using on ‘severe poverty’ are ambiguous and uncertain. See page 27 of Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2007 (http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn73.pdf). CPAG believes that the poverty line of 60% median income is the most important and reliable indicator.

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