Campaigners say £4bn is needed to hit child poverty target

from The Guardian

The government must step up its battle against child poverty, ministers admitted yesterday, as they announced a new unit to coordinate work on the issue. But child welfare campaigners and trade unionists warned that the government would miss the ambitious goal of halving child poverty by 2010 unless it invested a further £4bn. More will be needed to reach the ultimate goal of eradicating it by 2020.

The work and pensions secretary, Peter Hain, dismissed speculation that ministers would downgrade the targets, insisting they remained a priority. But he acknowledged that "we do have to do more". The children's secretary, Ed Balls, added: "Ending child poverty is a simple moral imperative; it has no place in modern Britain. 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."

Independent policy adviser Lisa Harker, who reviewed the child poverty strategy for ministers last year, said the government had achieved a lot. But she warned that while the unit would be useful in bringing together the work of Whitehall departments, councils and agencies, "on current policies, the government will not reach the targets and it's not going to reach them simply by working more closely together".

Children's charities praised the move towards greater coordination, but urged the government to spend more on tackling the problem. In the pre-budget report earlier this month, Alistair Darling announced rises in child tax credit and the amount of child maintenance a family can receive without it affecting their family benefits.

Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said: "Investment will do much more to restore public trust in the government's commitment to the targets." Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo's, added: "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."

The number of children living in poor families rose for the first time in six years in 2005-06, increasing by 200,000 to 3.8 million. The shadow work and pensions secretary, Chris Grayling, said ministers were not getting to grips with underlying issues such as family breakdown, while the Liberal Democrats said complex means-tested benefits were causing hardship and reducing incentives to work.

In a report today, the Commons work and pensions committee urges the government to ensure that families do not suffer financially because of proposals in its green paper on welfare reform. MPs said the green paper did not explain why lone parents should have to look for work when their youngest child turned seven - rather than any other age - and that it was essential lone parents with disabled children were not disadvantaged.