Child poverty matters
Reducing child poverty is a vital part of improving the lives of some of the most
disadvantaged children in society. Ensuring that families have resources to meet
their needs will help to both provide all children with a good start in life and
bolster their future life chances.
The last government’s approach was based around a headline measure that
defined child poverty as living in a household with less than 60% of median
equivalised household income.
A combination of significant redistribution
through the benefits and tax credits system and increased requirements and
support to help families move at least one earner into work, meant that progress
was made against this measure of relative income poverty. Today, 17.5% of
all children live in households below the relative income poverty threshold,
compared to over 25% in 1999.