Ask the government about the poverty impacts of its austerity programme and the answer is always the same: universal credit, the new in- and out-of-work benefit that will be rolled out from October this year, is here to save the day. But will it? Last week’s new child poverty figures showed that 2.3 million children…
We all know that growing up in poverty makes for a miserable childhood and that the consequences can be grave and enduring. But new research published last week shows that alongside the moral argument for reducing child poverty is a hard-nosed economic one too. Building on previous work undertaken for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in…
It is a truth universally acknowledged that the UK has some of the highest childcare costs in the developed world, and that these act as a significant disincentive for parents who want to work or increase their hours of employment. This barrier is clearly more significant for those on low-incomes who scrabble to pay the…
If we’re honest, it’s fair to say Child Poverty Action Group never expected to agree with every aspect of the government’s child poverty strategy when it was published last year but we did expect it to be lawful. This week, in response to a judicial review brought by Child Poverty Action Group, the High Court…
The value of Child Benefit has been frozen until 2014, cutting family incomes in tough times. The Government has also announced plans to stop paying Child Benefit to higher rate tax payers, ending almost 35 years of universal support for children. While the Government have been arguing that it is fair that these wealthy, higher…
The vast majority of children live in poverty not because their parents are workshy, are drug or alcohol dependent, or can’t manage their children properly, as government rhetoric increasingly seems to suggest. They are poor because their parents don’t have an adequate income to make ends meet. Work and worklessness: It is wrong to say…