United Kingdom: Blair Betray's Britain's Poorest Children

New statistics published today show that Tony Blair has failed to meet his first target for children living in poverty. Save the Children believes that the failure to hit this key target is devastating for the future of the poorest children. Our research has shown that the Government has helped those closest to the poverty line but has had little impact on the poorest.

Colette Marshall, UK Director of Save the Children, says: ‘In 1999, a promise to Britain’s poorest children was made by Tony Blair. This promise has been broken. Tony Blair must urgently reconfirm his commitment to his child poverty target. If urgent steps aren’t taken, children in our own communities living in severe and persistent poverty will continue to suffer.’

Save the Children is calling for:

• Tony Blair to co-ordinate an urgent review into what went wrong and why the target wasn’t met. This should be a top priority given the imminent appointment of the Social Exclusion minister.
• The Government to sort out the absurd mess of 11 different departments working on child poverty without proper co-ordination. The Government needs to have a joined-up strategy for child poverty and to commit to a strategy that explicitly targets the 1 million children living in severe and persistent poverty.
• Tony Blair to redouble efforts to meet the target of ending child poverty by 2020.
• Tony Blair to ensure his government measures the precise number of children living in severe and persistent poverty.

Households Below Average Income Survey statistics breakdown:

• To meet its quarterly target the Government needed to lift more than 1 million children out of poverty by 2004/5 (after housing costs).
• They have missed this target by approximately 300,000 children.
• They have also missed the easier target based on before housing costs. To meet this target the Government needed to lift 800,000 children out of poverty by 2004/5. They have missed this target by approximately 100,000 children.

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Notes to Editors

The statistics come from the Households Below Average Income Survey published by the Department of Work and Pensions.

Save the Children’s research, Britain’s Poorest Children Revisited, was published in December 2005. It revealed that up to 1 million children live in severe and persistent poverty in Britain.

Save the Children fights for children in the UK and around the world who suffer from poverty, disease, injustice and violence. We work with them to find lifelong answers to the problems they face.