Government to scrap child poverty target before tax credits cut

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jul/01/government-scrap-legal-requirements-child-poverty

Brierfield in Lancashire, where nearly 35% of children live in poverty and just over 50% are classed as poor, according to the End Child Poverty Campaign.

Government to scrap child poverty target before tax credits cut
Patrick Wintour Political Editor
Wednesday 1 July 2015 10.11 EDT

The government is to scrap its child poverty target and replace it with a new duty to report levels of educational attainment, worklessness and addiction, rather than relative material disadvantage, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said.

The old target set by Tony Blair, based on the percentage of households with below average income, will continue to be published as a government statistic – but will no longer be seen as a target.

~snip~

The downgrading of the existing target comes before a big cut in tax credits, expected in the 8 July budget as part of a drive to cut the welfare budget.

The cuts to tax credits would have made it even harder to reach the old child poverty target by 2020, the target date set by Labour and the end point of this parliament. Although some MPs welcomed the attempt to focus on the root causes of poverty, the removal of the material income target was denounced by Labour as the obituary notice for compassionate Conservatism.