The coalition is actively increasing child poverty
Felicity Dennistoun
Date: 11. October 2011 / Category: Commission on Living Standards
This post originally appeared on Left Foot Forward
As has been widely reported, new figures published today by the Institute for Fiscal Studies forecast that the number of children in poverty is set to rise.
Specifically, child poverty will rise continually during the first half of this decade and stay at approximately the same level until 2020, when there will be over three million children living in poverty in the UK. The figures about adults are similarly depressing; by 2015 6.6 million working age adults will be living in absolute poverty.
In this context the targets set in the Child Poverty Act, just last year, of reducing absolute child poverty to 5% and relative child poverty to 10% by 2020, seem at best woefully optimistic and at worst wildly unrealistic. The reasons behind these gloomy forecasts reveal why we’re moving in the wrong direction when it comes to the eradication child poverty.
IFS figures show that real median household income is forecast to be 7% lower in 2012-13 than it was in 2009-10, and to remain below its 2009-10 level until at least 2015-16. These figures are of serious concern given that by this point the economy should have made a convincing return to growth. Stagnating wages only tell part of the story though; child poverty is an area where politics makes a big difference.
Graph 1 below shows projections for child poverty both with and without the government’s tax and benefit reforms. As the dotted line shows, without government policy child poverty would be markedly lower. So where are things going wrong? While the planned changes to be brought in under Universal Credit should take us a step forward on poverty rates, the impact of indexing benefits to CPI instead of RPI will take us two steps back.
And while Universal Credit promises to make work pay, the figures reveal it just won’t do enough.
'Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings' 'earnings squeeze' 'squeeze' 'wage stagnation' #ows £10000 10p 2011 2012 50p 99% Affordable Housing Alex Hurrell America andrew haldane Anna Vignoles apprenticeships arrears ASHE assets Audit Australia autumn statement bank of england below minimum wage benefits borgen Boris Johnson borrowing budget budget 2011 Budget 2012 cameron care assistant centreforum child benefit child poverty childcar childcare CiF citizens UK coalition Commission Commission on Living Standards conservatives cost of living Cost of Motherhood costs council tax council tax benefit cpi CPIH daniel chandler datablog David Cameron david willetts de-coupling Debt debt forgivenes debt target degree dependency dilnot distribution Donald Hirsch earnings economy Ed Miliband education employment enforcement equity release felicity dennistoun female employment first-time buyers forbearance gap Gavin Kelly GDP gearing gender generation rent gingerbread giselle cory good life great stagnation gregg growth growth without gain Guardian HELP Committee higher rate higher rate tax relief hmrc holmes hourglass household debt household finances household income household spending Housing housing market huffington post IFS illegal in work income income inequality income tax increase indignados inequality inflation institutional investment interest rates international ippr Ipsos MORI James Plunkett jared bernstein jobs jobs gap joe coward John Van Reenen jrf Labour labour market lane kenworthy lee savage Left Foot Forward Lib Dems liberal democrats living living costs living standards living wage living wage foundation LMIs Low earners low middle earners low pay Low Pay Britain low pay commission low to middle income low wage low wage work machin marginal tax rate matt whittaker matthew hancock Matthew Whittaker mayhew measuring poverty median real wage median wage Mervyn King middle class minimum income standards minimum wage missing out mobility monetary policy Montague mortgage market mortgages netmums new statesman new statesman blog new year newby newham Nick Clegg niesr number paid below minimum wage Obama OBR occupy occupy wall street OECD older older workers ons pay pay and pensions pension Pensions pensions relief personal allowances personal finance pledge cards polarisation policy politicans politics poll poverty predistribution prescription charges prices priorities private rented sector private sector growth prospect public sector public services q2 growth recession recovery reduce credit card reform regional Rented Sector resolution foudnation Resolution Foundation retirement robin wales routine jobs rpi RPIJ rss savings Senate shereen hussein skills social social care social housing social mobility social mobility foundation society Sophia Parker southern cross Squeezed Britain Squeezed Middle standards state state pension age sutton trust tax tax and benefit changes tax and benefits Tax Benefits tax changes tax credits tax cuts tax relief The Spirit Level think tank think-tank threshold travel time trends uk underemployment unemployment unison Universal Credit university USA van reenen VAT Vidhya Alakeson voters voting wage wage growth wage inequality Wage squeeze 2013 wages welfare Welfare Debate welfare state White Paper women Work work incentives workers Working part time lower skilled job working poor young people Youth unemployment youth wages zero hours
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