Unfair welfare cuts will heighten child poverty

The Archbishop of Canterbury’s intervention was important, saying that “as a civilised society, we have a duty to support those among us who are vulnerable… these changes will mean it is children and families who will pay the price for high inflation”. It is estimated that the real-terms reduction in benefits will push a further 200,000 children into poverty.

The government response was in two parts – first, that there is no money; and second, that it is right to incentivise parents on benefits to go out to work. The first point is clearly false, since the government has made explicit choices to reduce taxation for the richest in our society.

The reduction of the highest tax rate from 50 per cent to 45 per cent will reduce the “tax burden” of the richest, who can most easily afford it. My estimate is that the 5,000 or so bankers who earned more than £1m last year will save at least £50,000 each – a total of £250m.

I am more than willing to bet that the £50,000 matters less to a banker on £1m than £424 per year to the family with two children and one working parent on £600 per week. On the second point, there really isn’t much reasonably paid work about – haven’t they noticed?

The background rhetoric, though, is also telling. “Increases in private school fees of five per cent are pricing many middle-class parents out of the market,” reported The Sunday Telegraph this month.

Elsewhere, a Conservative MP was heard on the Today programme saying that the group that was hurting most was those earning £40,000 to £50,000 – no, they are not hurting as much as those already in poverty and who are being evicted from their homes because they cannot afford to pay the rent, and are being rehoused away from work and schools.

John Freeman CBE is a former director of children’s services and is now a freelance consultant  

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