Working mothers who earn less than husbands get £40-a-week bonus

Mothers will be offered £40 a week to go back to work under plans unveiled by Gordon Brown.

The scheme would give a couple with children £40 if one parent works and the other, usually the mother, agrees to look for a job. If both work the couple would get £80.

But mothers who choose to stay at home will receive nothing.

For families with a child under seven, the only requirement would be to remain in contact with the job market by attending occasional advice courses by their local job centre.

Once all children are seven, the money would be conditional on taking a paid job.

Aimed at the poorest households, the measure is part of a package set out by the Prime Minister to tackle child poverty, including £200 ‘child development grants’ for parents on low incomes with under-fives, if they agree to improve their children’s lives in ways such as giving them a healthy diet.

But critics said the £40 payments did too little.

Chris Grayling, Tory work and pensions spokesman said: ‘Gordon Brown just doesn’t understand that what Britain needs is not yet more pointless tinkering with the benefits system for working mothers but real action to tackle family breakdown in a nation where millions of people are trapped in benefit dependency.’

The Child Poverty Action Group said the measures lacked ‘the language and bold policies to strike at the heart of the problem’.

Mr Brown’s plans include 30 children’s centres which will be set up in ten areas, offering parents training and work experience.

There will be improved accommodation for teenage mothers and services to boost their parenting skills. A further £20million is being allocated for schemes to tackle child poverty, concentrating on remote rural areas and deprived parts of inner cities.

In a speech to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, Mr Brown said improvements in social mobility stalled under Margaret Thatcher.

Revival: Gordon Brown hopes the plans will rejuvenate his flagging leadership.

As a result, Britain was left with a ‘lost generation’ of ‘Thatcher’s children’ who were unable to progress and improve their lot in life.

Labour has narrowed the achievement gap between social classes in primary and secondary schools, he said.

But figures issued by the tax analyst Maurice Fitzpatrick of accountants Grant Thornton showed that income inequality has, on average, been higher under Labour since 1997 than over the 18 years the Tories were in power.

A Government study last week showed that mothers who stay at home to care for their children are at greater risk of poverty under Labour.

Ministers said encouraging parents to work was the best way of tackling child poverty.

A child in a workless household had a 68 per cent risk of living in poverty. One in a household where both parents work had only a 3 per cent risk of poverty, they added.

But Labour has been accused of driving mothers back into the workplace in its efforts to tackle child poverty.

Recent figures show the number of stay-at-home mothers has fallen 25 per cent in the past 15 years.

Earlier this year, the adviser brought in to review the Government’s Sure Start scheme for pre-school children, called for tax breaks for stay-at-home mothers.

Professor Jay Belsky warned that toddlers who spend long hours in nurseries or with childminders suffer ‘disconcerting’ effects.