Government 'falling behind on child poverty'

Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain accepted that more needed to be done as he annouced a new Child Poverty Unit would help break the cycle of poverty for many more youngsters.

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While official figures show that 600,000 children have been lifted out of poverty since 1997, Labour MPs and independent experts have warned the Government it must accelerate progress towards its goal of eradicating child poverty by 2020.

Independent policy adviser Lisa Harker, who was asked to review the Government's child poverty strategy in 2006, said today the Government was falling behind their targets.

"It has achieved a lot - 600,000 children out of poverty in the last seven years, which is a major reversal of the trend we have seen for the last 30 years.

"That is a major achievement, but the Government has set itself an ambition and it is not yet on track to achieve that ambition. It will not make its 2020 target on current progress."

She added that while the "medicine" - such as helping more parents to work - was right, the "dosage" was wrong.

"It hasn't invested enough in resources," she said.

Mr Hain said the Government had already announced extra money from next year to help parents work, but accepted that Ms Harker was correct in her analysis.

"She's right, we do have to do more and that's the purpose of this poverty unit within Whitehall," Mr Hain said.

Amid suggestions that the Government might try to downgrade its targets, Mr Hain maintained that ministers would continue to monitor their progress on relative - as opposed to absolute - poverty.

"People will say "well children are not living in the absolute poverty they were in generations past" but, compared with others and their peers in playground or the classroom, they are and that is the target we have set ourselves," he said.

"It is a stiff one, but we are determined to halve it by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020."

The new unit will feature officials from both the the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

It will work with local government and agencies to coordinate efforts to eliminate child poverty.

In the Pre-Budget Report earlier this month, Chancellor Alistair Darling in the Pre-Budget Report announced an increase in the amount of child maintenance a family can receive without it affecting their family benefits to £20 a week next year and then £40 a week in 2010.

He also said that child tax credit will be increased by a total of £175 a year from next April with a further increase in 2010.

Children and Schools Secretary Ed Balls said ending child poverty was "a moral imperative".

"There has been an enormous programme of social reform over the past 10 years that has lifted 600,000 children out of poverty - but this must accelerate, not plateau," he said.

"The Child Poverty Unit renews our commitment to eradicating child poverty. By working across Government we can think and act strategically, share expertise and join up resources to help end child poverty."

Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, said there was an economic case for ending child poverty.

"Research in the US shows that the failure to tackle child poverty there, in additional health and criminal justice costs and in reduced tax revenues, amounts to 3.8 per cent of American GDP or 500 billion every year," he said.

"Poverty does not just affect the 3.8 million children who are living below the bread line today - it affects everyone both socially and financially.

"It is shameful and damaging to us all, that the fourth or fifth richest country in the world allows one in three of its children to live in poverty."