Election 2015 Party Policy Guide: Child poverty

Conservatives

• Accept the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission that the national minimum wage should rise to £6.70 this autumn, on course for a level over £8 by 2020
• Encourage businesses and other organisations to pay the living wage when they can afford it
• Raise the tax-free personal allowance – the amount you can earn before you start paying tax – to £12,500
• Introduce a new law so that the Personal Allowance automatically rises in line with the national minimum wage
• Work to eliminate child poverty and introduce measures that recognise the root causes of poverty: entrenched worklessness, family breakdown, problem debt, and drug and alcohol dependency

Labour

• Retain the target to end child poverty by 2020
• Ask the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to report on progress towards the 2020 target
• Raise the national minimum wage to more than £8 an hour by October 2019, bringing it closer to average earnings
• Give local authorities a role in strengthening enforcement against those paying less than the legal amount
• End use of zero-hour contracts
• Give tax rebates to businesses that pay the living wage through “Make Work Pay” contracts, and encourage adoption of the living wage by including it in government contracts

Liberal Democrats

• Ask the Low Pay Commission to look at ways of raising the national minimum wage, without damaging employment opportunities
• Improve enforcement action and tackle abuses by employers seeking to avoid paying the minimum wage by reviewing practices such as unpaid internships
• Establish an independent review to consult on how to set a fair living wage across all sectors, which will be paid by all central government departments and their agencies from April 2016, and encourage other public sector employers to do likewise

Commentary

All three parties recognise that increasing the national minimum wage is a good starting point for improving the living standards of the lowest paid in society. Labour wants to get to £8 an hour earlier than the Tories, while the Lib Dems have introduced the caveat that raising it should not damage employment.

All want to see the expansion of the living wage, which is particularly relevant in London where it is hardest to recruit and retain low-paid public sector workers. Only Labour has committed to retain the 2010 commitment to end child poverty by 2020. The Tories want to introduce “better measures” of poverty and work to tackle them.

There is no mention of child poverty in the Lib Dem manifesto.

Download the full CYP Now Party Policy Guide