NCB Now: Comment - Disabled children must be lifted out of poverty
Steve Broach
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
The government's commitments to reduce child poverty by half by 2010 and end it by 2020 are ambitious and commendable.
But they will not be reached without new policies and significant investment. Barnardo's estimates that on current policies, there will be 30,000 more disabled children living in poverty in 2010 than there were in 2005.
Every Disabled Child Matters (EDCM) has published Disabled Children and Child Poverty in support of the wider Campaign to End Child Poverty. We want the government to invest £4bn in tax credits and benefits to meet the 2010 target. This would lift 140,000 disabled children out of poverty.
We also want specific action to tackle the drivers of poverty in families with disabled children. Most urgent is a major campaign to improve take-up of the disability living allowance. This is the key benefit for families with disabled children, yet EDCM estimates at least 100,000 families who are eligible for it are missing out.
Alongside this, we want the government to increase the childcare element of working tax credit for families with disabled children who currently pay around five times as much for childcare as other families. We also want the government to give the Family Fund an additional £34m over the next three years to provide support to more families with disabled children.
Poverty in families with disabled children is real and ending it must be an urgent priority for Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Children's Secretary Ed Balls. Ninety-three per cent of families with disabled children experience financial difficulties, and at the most extreme end one in five families struggle to afford food. Following the major investment in services announced in Aiming High for Disabled Children, ending child poverty for families with disabled children must be next on the government's list.
- Steve Broach, campaign manager, Every Disabled Child Matters.