The Work and Pensions Committee publishes the Government’s
response to its report on measuring child poverty.
The Committee’s report, published in
September, called on the Government to commit to a
cross-departmental strategy to reduce the number of children
living in poverty in the UK. The Government rejects the
Committee’s recommendation, with the response highlighting the
DWP’s focus on getting people into work through the Plan for Jobs
as its main approach to tackling poverty.
On data and measurements, the Government’s response refers to
work to develop an interactive tool related to indicators of
child poverty but stops short of accepting the Committee’s
recommendation of developing a single dashboard.
In response to the Committee’s call to widen its focus beyond
just absolute poverty, the Government reaffirms its commitment to
measuring poverty through all four measures of children in low
income as set out in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.
Rt Hon MP, Chair of the Work and
Pensions Committee, said:
“An obvious first step for Ministers should be to come up with a
comprehensive cross-departmental strategy to ensure all of
Government is on the same page when it comes to lifting children
out of poverty. While the focus on helping people get back into
work is important, this risks neglecting some of the wider causes
of why families may be struggling to get by.
The Government should now commit to developing a proper strategy
with measurable objectives so it can be held to account for
reducing child poverty and helping a generation of young people
who would otherwise face poorer outcomes later in life.”
