Trade unions and health experts to have their say on child poverty plans

Trade unions and children’s health experts will be among those consulted as part of the Government’s plans to tackle child poverty, but charities are calling for more action in next week’s Budget.

The Government’s strategy on child poverty will look to support households to increase their income, help bring down households costs, increase financial resilience and aim to alleviate the “negative experience” of living in poverty, according to a written ministerial statement from Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall on Wednesday.

The statement – and a separate publication on gov.uk – confirms that charity sector groups are among those who have been invited to share evidence with the child poverty taskforce this month, before employers, trade unions and think tanks will get the opportunity to discuss incomes and financial resilience in November.

In December, they will hear from experts on children’s health, early years and education, and parents and carers who have experiences of children living in poverty will also “feed directly into the strategy” Ms Kendall said, through a new forum that will be set up.

The child poverty taskforce was established in the summer around the time the Government was facing resistance to its plans to keep the two-child benefit cap.

On Wednesday, the Cabinet Office published their strategy plan for “tackling child poverty”.

Responding to the Government’s plans, children’s charities have called for further action in next week’s Budget and want ministers to remove the two-child benefit limit.

A spokesperson for the Children’s Charities Coalition, representing Action for Children and the NSPCC among others, welcomed the Government’s “long term (aim of) tackling child poverty across the UK” but said “countless families” are struggling daily “with the prospect of things getting even worse as we head into another winter”.

“The Prime Minister and Chancellor need to recognise that in order to be effective, the strategy requires a dual focus of long-term systematic change alongside the urgent action required now,” the spokesperson added.

“Alleviating the worst impacts of child poverty is not enough – ministers must also pull all the levers they have available to confront the root causes once and for all.

“The Government should use next week’s Budget to send a clear message that it is committed to transforming childhoods. Removing the two-child limit would do this and would lift an estimated 540,000 children out of poverty.”

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has said that “Britain cannot fulfil its potential when the talents of so many children are being denied”, and that it is “unacceptable” that millions of children are growing up in poverty.

She added: “We will work with campaigners and experts, and struggling families across the countr, to deliver a bold and ambitious strategy that drives down poverty and drives up opportunity in every corner of the land.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson described ending child poverty as a “complex and difficult task”.

She said that the framework “sets the clear direction” of the mission for ministers and ensures “we are united across Government and with stakeholders to drive down household costs”.