Child poverty costs £25bn a year

The massive sum includes the extra amount spent by the authorities on dealing with the health, educational and social consequences of child poverty, estimated at £12 billion a year by researchers from the Joseph Rowntree Trust.

And it includes the longer-term economic cost to the country caused by the fact that children who grow up in poverty are more likely to be unemployed or in low-paid jobs as adults.

The study estimates that this costs the Treasury £2 billion a year in additional benefit payouts and reduces UK GDP by at least £11 billion annually due to reduced earnings - £3 billion of which would have gone to the Exchequer in tax.

JRF poverty adviser Donald Hirsch said: "Child poverty imposes huge costs on those affected but it is also costly to us all.

"Getting rid of child poverty will not be cheap. But this report shows that large amounts are being spent on paying for the fallout from child poverty. This could be more productively employed in preventing it from occurring in the first place.

"Tackling child poverty would bring a double benefit - for the families whose life chances and quality of life would be improved and for society, which would no longer have to pay such high costs of picking up the pieces."

The report cites research showing that children from low-income families experience disadvantage in education, health and family life, requiring extra spending by social services.

The pressures of poverty also contribute to higher rates of anti-social behaviour, which add to the cost of law and order provision, it said.

The Government is committed to eradicating child poverty by 2020 and halving it by 2010, but early progress following the 1999 pledge has been reversed over the past two years which saw the number of children living in poverty rise by around 200,000. Campaigners argue that official spending on child poverty must be increased by £3 billion a year to meet the 2010 target.