Cash will pull 200,000 children out of poverty, claims Brown

from The Herald

More than 200,000 children will be lifted out of poverty by the additional money for families contained in the budget, the Chancellor claimed.

Eradicating child poverty has been a long-stated ambition of Mr Brown and he said the package of benefit and tax-credit increases would mean more help for the poorest.

Parents of the poorest children currently receive £61 a week but that will rise in three successive stages by more than a quarter to £75 a week, or £3900 annually.

The Chancellor said supporting and strengthening families was one of three major priorities "vital for our country".

Mr Brown told the Commons the best way to help the income of families was to raise child benefits. But campaigners and political opponents warned the measures would not be enough to get the government back on track to meet its target of halving child poverty by 2010.

Under changes announced yesterday, weekly benefit for a first child will rise from £17.45 to £20 in stages, between now and 2010.

In April, the child element of child tax credit will increase by £150 a year to £2080. That would mean the minimum weekly payment to the six million families on both child benefit and child tax credit will rise to £31, according to Mr Brown.

The Treasury said the budget would leave households with children £250 a year better off on average and those in the poorest fifth of the population £245 a year better off.

Additional money would also be devoted to expanding services such as Childline, Parentline Plus and "the services parents and children use and rely upon", Mr Brown said.

He told the Commons: "I have focused support on families by raising child benefits and child tax credits, taking 200,000 more children out of poverty."

Claire Walker, of Save the Children, said: "While these policies will help all families, this is not a budget for the very poorest children in the UK.

"These announcements are a step towards the major investment needed to end child poverty but while these measures will lift 200,000 children out of poverty, that still leaves 3.2 million children missing out on the best start in life and the government off track on its own child-poverty target. These children can't wait."

Kate Green, Child Poverty Action Group chief executive, said: "We recognise the important step the government has made in this budget towards halving child poverty by 2010. Significant extra investment at this stage is vital to keep us in reach of that target."

The Budget also extended a £40 a week bonus to single parents during their first year back in work and money has also been set aside to expand the numbers of hours of free nursery education for every three and four-year-old from twelve-and-a-half hours a week to 15 over the next three years.

The National Council for One Parent Families said the increases in the level of child benefit and child tax credit were "vital steps that will be of real help" to the poorest one-parent families.

Dame Mary Marsh, chief executive of the NSPCC, said the extra money for its 24- hour ChildLine service, which receives 4500 calls daily but can answer only 2500, was "great news for children who are often desperate for help and have no-one else to turn to".

The Chancellor said he had given consideration to the restoration of the married couples allowance and for a transferable tax allowance between husbands and wives with children under the age of five.

However, Mr Brown said the effect of this would be to penalise not only three million widows and their children who would not qualify, but also husbands and wives left by their spouses.

He said a transferable tax allowance earmarked for families with children under five would benefit only one million married couples and exclude 11 million children, which is why he ruled it out.

He said: "You do not support marriage by penalising most married couples and 11 million children."