British govt. scraps target for child poverty eradication ahead of tax credits cut

The British government has announced plan to scrap measures aimed at eradicating child poverty before the cut in tax credits.

The official measure has so far defined that a child is being considered in poverty if it is in a household with less than 60% of the national median average income. Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, now wants to replace the system with a new duty to report such as levels of educational attainment, worklessness and addiction.

Now, the government will define poverty not in terms of money, but by measuring the number of workless households and educational attainment of children.

“Measures will identify the proportion of children living in workless households. The educational attainment measures will focus on GCSE attainment for all particularly disadvantaged pupils,” Duncan Smith informed MPs.

The new approach was proposed during the coalition government but was then blocked by Chancellor George Osborne. However, it has resurfaced before a big cut in tax credits which is likely to be announced in the 8 July budget as part of a drive to cut the welfare budget.

The target to eradicate child poverty by 2020 was set by the government of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and it was based on the percentage of households with below average income.

According to Duncan Smith, the measures by the Blair government were poor. He argues that families can fall or go above the relative poverty line for reasons that have little to do with their material wealth.“We know in households with unstable relationships, where debt and addiction destabilize families, where parents lack employment skills, where children just aren’t ready to start school, these children don’t have the same chances in life as others”.

The long-expected change came after publication of statistics that revealed no fall in poverty level with four UK children's commissioners joined forces to warn that child poverty remains "unacceptably high" and urged the government to refrain from cuts that could push more kids into poverty. 

Meanwhile, some Labour MPs and charities have expressed concern over the new measure saying the child poverty may go up with more credit cuts coming down the line. Stephen Timms MP condemned the plan as the "obituary notice of compassionate conservatism".

Child Poverty Action Group  said: “The statement isn’t about strengthening efforts to end child poverty, but about burying the failure of the government’s child poverty approach”.

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