Poverty

This article features key information about poverty, including homeless poverty and child poverty. It outlines the government’s position on poverty, especially child poverty, and looks at some of the policies it has introduced to tackle it.

Poverty jobs

History

Prime minister Tony Blair’s government came to power in 1997, pledging to make poverty history. One of its key aims was to cut child poverty by half by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020.

It introduced a number of benefits to tackle poverty, including child poverty and homeless poverty, such as Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit

Chancellor Gordon Brown announced in March 2007 that the government would spend an extra £1 billion to cut child poverty, which would be used to lift 200,000 children out of poverty. He said Child Tax Credit would rise by £150 a year and Working Tax Credit would increase by £1,200 a year.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies says child poverty increased for the first time in six years. Figures collated by charity End Child Poverty show that 3.8 million children – one in three – continues to live in poverty. Tax credits have also come under fire with news that many people were overpaid by the government, which later demanded the cash back.

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