Child poverty strategy a missed opportunity, says commission

The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission’s response to the government’s Draft Child Poverty Strategy 2014-17, published in February, has concluded that the measures in it will be insufficient to prevent both absolute and relative poverty rising for families with children.

The commission, chaired by former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn, projects that if current employment and economic trends continue 3.5 million children will be living in absolute poverty – classed as households with a net income of 60 per cent of the median – by 2020.

The report says that even if the government achieves its “heroic” assumptions on rising parental employment and earnings rates, 21 per cent of all children will still be living in absolute poverty by 2020. This is more than four times the target set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010 to cut the rate to less than five per cent of households with children.

Analysis carried out for the commission by Landman Economics and the National Institute for Economic and Social Research, finds that to achieve the 2020 target within the current tax and benefits system would require near-full employment rates and big increases in the working hours of parents, outcomes it describes as “implausible”.

It concludes that the draft strategy is a “missed opportunity” that lacks clear measures to assess effectiveness, is a collection of policies rather than coherent plan, and lacks action on “in-work” poverty and policies to tackle low pay.