Poverty of ambition

In 1999, New Labour proclaimed that it would "end child poverty within a generation". Now there's a consultation to redefine that pledge.

Child poverty was defined as those living in households with less than 60% the median income. Under New Labour there are 600,000 fewer children living in poverty today. However 3.9 million remain in poverty by this definition – and the Government failed to meet its 2004/05 target to cut child poverty by a quarter.

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that the effect of current policies, "will be to keep child poverty roughly at its present level by 2010 and reduce it by only 260,000 by 2020". This would only be sufficient to reach the missed 2004/05 target. Worse still for the Government, their own statistics show that child poverty has increased in each of the last two years.

Now the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) is running a consultation 'Ending Child Poverty: Making It Happen'. In the Queen's Speech for the current parliamentary session, the Government promised to enshrine its child poverty pledge in legislation. Apparently "legislation will ensure that there is a clear vision and definition of success". However, what the consultation proposes is to re-define what is classed as success, dilute the clear original vision and share the blame for failure more evenly with local authorities.

The consultation proposes three targets, the main one of which is "reducing the proportion of children in relative low income to 5-10 per cent by 2020". While a retreat from the current target, this is still ambitious considering that currently 23 per cent of UK children fit that category – exactly the same percentage that did in 2001 (this compares with 17% in Belgium and just 10% in Denmark). However, the consultation paper states that "action to meet these targets is subject to overall affordability and . . . child poverty strategy, to be refreshed every three years". So if the target is still not being met, expect it to be "refreshed" in three years' time!

The Child Poverty Action Group, said: "so far, the lack of high quality childcare and ill-considered welfare reforms for parents have undermined progress on child poverty", and is urging drastic action in the Budget – now delayed until 22nd April. Gingerbread, the single parent charity, has stated that it would be pushing Government to accept a more ambitious target than that set out in the consultation.

This is a consultation about how to fiddle the statistics, pass the buck, and create grandiose yet meaningless commissions and reports.

The consultation paper can be downloaded from the DCSF website and the deadline for responses is 11th March. At a time of recession, when more families will be plunged into poverty, the Government is bailing-out banks while bailing-out of its commitments on child poverty. It's up to us all not to let that go unnoticed.