CYP Now - Budget: Further investment required if child poverty is to be eradicated

Anti-poverty campaigners say the Government needs to put more money into early years services and tax credits if it is to hit its targets to eradicate child poverty.

As Chancellor Gordon Brown was poised to set out the scale of the Government's spending ambitions today, after Children Now went to press, End Child Poverty director Jonathan Stearn said the child tax credit would have to rise by 12 a week if child poverty was to be eliminated by 2020.

A report by the group to mark the fifth anniversary of the pledge this week says that 6.8bn is needed to close the income gap and invest in services.

The Budget follows a hint by Prime Minister Tony Blair - in his speech to the Labour Party spring conference last weekend - that the Sure Start programme would be rolled out across the whole of Britain.

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