Child poverty figure drops by 100,000

The latest government Households Below Average Income figures show that after housing costs there were 3.8 million children living in poverty during 2009/10, one per cent less than the previous year.

Since 1998/99 the number of children living in poverty has fallen by 700,000. But child poverty campaigners warn that progress is still slow and fear that coalition government changes to benefit payments could plunge more families into poverty.

Enver Solomon, The Children’s Society’s director of policy, is "deeply concerned" about the Welfare Reform Bill that plans to cap household benefits. A reduction in childcare costs that can be recouped through working tax credits is another concern.

"Once again it is the most vulnerable young people who are being hit the hardest. If the government is truly committed to ending child poverty by 2020, as it claims, it must invest in welfare for the next generation," Solomon added.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said that coalition policies for welfare reform, including the introduction of the Universal Credit, will lift 350,000 children out of poverty.

He blamed the previous Labour government for failing to do more to combat child poverty. "This gap between the poorest and richest in our society has accelerated over the past five years despite an astonishing £150bn injected into tax credits alone. The end result has been to make benefit dependency and worklessness inherent to the UK way of life with middle and low income earners picking up the bill."

Unicef UK’s executive director Anita Tiessen defended Labour’s introduction of child and working tax credits.

She added: "The response from the coalition government cannot be about passing blame for this slow progress back to the previous government. The focus today must be about what more can be done to help the millions of children living in poverty."

She called on the coalition government to ensure each department prioritises child poverty reduction.