Child poverty
In 1999, the Government announced its aim to eradicate child poverty by 2020. The Government now intends to enshrine this pledge in legislation. Since the commitment to eradicate child poverty was announced, good progress has been made. In 1998/99, there were 3.4 million children (26%) living in poverty. By 2006/07 (the latest figures available) this had fallen by 600,000 children to 2.9 million children.
The Government has consulted extensively with stakeholders on how to measure and tackle child poverty. This has been instrumental in developing the Government’s strategy. In 2004 the Government published the Child Poverty Review which examined both the welfare reform and public service changes needed to advance the long-term goal of halving and eradicating child poverty.
- Child Poverty Review (HM Treasury website)
The Government built on this in “Ending child poverty: everybody’s business”, published alongside Budget 2008.
- Ending child poverty: everbody's business (HM Treasury website)
This document considered:
- the causes and consequences of child poverty
- the costs associated with childhood experiences of poverty for both individuals and society
- the impact of Government action so far, and
- policy direction for the future.
The Child Poverty Bill
The Child Poverty Bill was introduced to the House of Commons on 11 June 2009.
The Bill is jointly sponsored by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Work and Pensions, and Her Majesty's Treasury.
The Child Poverty Bill enshrines in legislation the commitment to eradicate child poverty by 2020. It defines success in eradicating child poverty and establishes an accountability framework to drive progress towards the 2020 goal at national and local level.
You can read the Bill and follow its progress on the Parliament website –
There is more background information on the Every Child Matters website –
The Child Poverty Unit
At the end of 2007, the Government created the Child Poverty Unit to bring together key officials in the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and HM Treasury. The work of the Unit focuses on taking forward the Government’s strategy to eradicate child poverty for the long term. Work includes developing a range of child poverty pilots to test and explore new approaches to tackling child poverty at local level across the country.
Child poverty evidence base
Research and evidence helps policy makers understand the levels of child poverty in the UK and identify which groups are at risk of child poverty. The documents listed here also cover stakeholder views and attitudes to child poverty.
- Ending child poverty: everbody's business (2008) (HM Treasury website)
- Child Poverty Review (2004) (HM Treasury website)
- Measuring child poverty (2003) (166KB)
- Households Below Average Income (from 1994) (DWP statistics)
- Ending child poverty: 'Thinking 2020' (2008) (527KB)
DWP Working Paper No 56 – A report which followed a stakeholder event in June 2008 to discuss the vision of a UK free of child poverty. - Public attitudes to child poverty (2008) (717KB)
DWP Research Summary – As local services, agencies and professionals play a pivotal role, the Child Poverty Unit commissioned an exploratory, qualitative study to investigate how practitioners view child poverty and its eradication in relation to their work. - Changing economic circumstances in childhood and their effects on subsequent educational and other outcomes (2008) (497KB)
DWP Working Paper No 49. - Employment transitions and the changes in economic circumstances of families with children: Evidence from the Families and Children Study (FACS) (2008) (2.2MB)
DWP Research Report No 506. - Delivering on Child Poverty: what would it take? (2006)
Lisa Harker reported her findings on the Department for Work and Pensions’ child poverty strategy on 1 November 2006. - Opportunity for all – Children and young people
- National Action Plan on Social Inclusion 2008-2010
