Submitted by crinadmin on
The government has missed the first target in its bid to end child poverty.
Tony Blair pledged in 1999 to eradicate child poverty by 2020 - and to have cut it from 4.1m to 3.1m by April 2005. Department for Work and Pension figures show the number of children in poverty has fallen by 700,000 since 1999, missing the target by 300,000. Ministers say the government remains committed to wiping out poverty within a generation, but opposition MPs called it "disappointing" and "disturbing".
'Urgent review'
A family is considered to be officially poor if they are living on less than 60% of Britain's average household income, once housing costs are taken into account.
Poverty campaigners say good progress has been made but they want further investment in benefits schemes to help lift more families above the breadline.
Under the government's welfare-to-work policies, more than 300,000 extra lone mothers have found employment. But campaigners believe these strategies have left behind large families or those with disabled children.
Sir Jeremy Beecham, vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said there had been a significant reduction in child poverty but there was "still much to be done".
He said enhancing the take-up of council tax benefit by the low paid would help reduce poverty numbers further.
"The current system is too complicated and fails to provide an adequate safety net for many of the poorest families in the country," he said.
"Ministers should embrace the opportunity to ensure that those most in need get the entitlements to help them out of poverty."
Ms Hodge said the government had inherited "the poorest record in Europe" when it came to power with one in three children growing up in poverty.
She said it had managed to "break the cycle of deprivation" and helped six million families and 10 million children.
Conservative work and pensions' spokesman Philip Hammond, speaking earlier, said employment for parents was the key to ending child poverty, and that people could not rely on the state to solve the problem.
"The state is not the only engine of social justice," he said. "We need to engage the private sector, the voluntary sector in a collaborative effort to tackle the scourge of child poverty."
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