Barnardos: One million children will remain in poverty

from Politics UK

The children’s charity Barnardos has expressed concern that Labour will fail to reach its 1999 commitment to halve child poverty by 2010.

Yesterday, Alistair Darling announced he would be doubling the amount of child maintenance to £20 per week in 2008 and then £40 a week in 2010.

The chancellor also announced he would raise the child tax credit by a total of £175 a year from next April, with a further increase in 2010.

Mr Darling claimed these measures would lift a further 100,000 children out of poverty.

But despite these offerings, Barnardos has attacked the government today, claiming the figures are misleading.

Taking 100,000 children out of poverty, as the chancellor promised, fails to acknowledge that last year, the number of children in poverty actually rose by 100,000 to 3.8 million in the UK.

Labour have successfully lifted 600,000 children out of poverty since 1999, however, they are expected to substantially fall short of their target to save 2.2 million children before 2010.

Barnardos chief executive, Martin Narey, said: “After commendable progress - on the government’s own figures - last year, 100,000 children sank back into poverty.

“There are now 3.8 million poor children in the UK and the target to halve child poverty by 2010 will be missed by almost one million children”.

Mr Narey called this a “betrayal”, saying Mr Darling’s statement yesterday will simply reverse last year’s deterioration, rather than rescuing more children from poverty.

Hilary Fisher, director of the Campaign to End Child Poverty, said: “It is nothing short of outrageous that the government is reneging on its promise to millions of children.

“Child poverty is a £40 billion drain on our economy and not addressing it is only going make things worse in the future.”