The Child Poverty Strategy 2014-17, the final version of which was published on Thursday, reveals that the government intends to “break the cycle of disadvantage” by getting parents into work, decreasing living costs and boosting educational attainment.
But children's campaigners say it lacks ambition and fails to take into account widespread criticism of the draft version that was put out for consultation in February.
Matthew Reed, chief executive of the Children’s Society’s, described the strategy as a “wasted opportunity”.
“At a time when drastic action is needed to improve these children’s lives, it has delivered a plan that cannot reverse this growing crisis,” he said.
“The government must commit to practical steps that will make a difference to the millions of families struggling to make ends meet if it is to achieve its commitment to end child poverty by 2020.”
Reed said it is crucial that more is done to end “in-work poverty”, by helping working families on low incomes who miss out on help such as free school meals and heating discounts.
Enver Solomon, director of evidence and impact at the National Children’s Bureau, said many children's lives are blighted by “daily hardship and severe disadvantage”.
“The government has rightly recognised the importance of tackling the root causes behind this but the strategy falls short of setting out a comprehensive cross-Whitehall approach that makes tackling child poverty a top priority across government with every department held to account,” he said.
“In particular the lack of a greater link up with the Department of Health is a missed opportunity especially given the well-documented bad health outcomes for poor families.”
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “Any government that truly cared about tackling the underachievement of disadvantaged children, including poor white working class children, would make tackling child poverty its highest priority.
“Children are the innocent victims of unequal life chances inherited from their parents. Any failure to meet child poverty targets is a failure to give children high aspirations and good life chances.”
The criticism comes after the draft strategy was last month described as a "missed opportunity" by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission.
The commission currently predicts that even if the government achieves its assumptions on rising parental employment and earnings rates, 21 per cent of all children will still be living in absolute poverty by 2020 – more than four times the target set out in the Child Poverty Act 2010.
But, despite widespread concerns about the content of the draft strategy, significant changes were not forthcoming.
The government’s response to the consultation on the strategy reveals that around 50 per cent of respondents to the consultation were concerned about impacts of welfare reform on low-income families.
And around 30 per cent of respondents who commented on welfare reform questioned whether benefit sanctions were effective in moving people into work.
Meanwhile, around 20 per cent wanted to see more information on how the government will track progress towards the goal of ending child poverty, and a similar number were concerned about the government meeting its 2020 targets.
The government has also launched a consultation on setting a proposed new persistent child poverty target for the UK, to be achieved in the financial year beginning 1 April 2020, under the Child Poverty Act 2010.
It has proposed a target of ensuring below seven per cent of children are living in a household in relative low income for at least three years out of a four-year period by 2020.
