One in three youngsters 'living in poverty', claims Tory minister

from The Daily Mail

Nearly one in three young people are living in poverty, the Conservatives claimed today.

James Clappison, shadow minister for work and pensions, said that youth unemployment had risen steadily since Labour came to power in 1997.

This coincided with an increase in the number of young people living in poverty.

He called at question time for the Government to come up with "new thinking" to tackle the issue.

Mr Clappison said: "Youth unemployment today stands at 13 per cent higher than it did when this Government came to office.

"And there is a connection between this and the fact that the number of young people living in poverty has increased by 400,000 since 1997 so that nearly one in three young people are living in poverty."

It was time "the Government faced up to these problems and we had some fresh thinking".

But Stephen Timms, Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, attacked the Tories' record on poverty when in Government.

He said: "It's a shame the party opposite wasn't worrying about this group of young people when the government they supported was doubling the rate of child poverty between 1979 and 1997."

He said that Mr Clappison had included full-time students in figures he had quoted who were "certainly in no sense part of a lost generation".

He insisted: "Unemployment is down, the claimant count is down, the number of young people who have been claiming job seekers' allowance for over 12 months has fallen from 85,000 in May 1997 to less than 7,000 today.

"We will continue to make sure that the very substantial number of opportunities being created in the economy are available including to people who have been out of work for a long time."