Child poverty

Welfare Secretary Iain Duncan-Smith argues that there’s ‘nothing moral about trapping people in welfare dependency’. The Church of England says capping benefits will push more children into poverty. They’re both missing the point, says Helen Barnard.

JRF is arguing against a proposed new measure of child poverty that could confuse its causes and effects, as Kate Bell explains.

Young people from low income backgrounds don’t lack aspiration, but the support required to reach their goals.

What truth is there in Anna Soubry’s claim that most overweight people are also poor? Chris Goulden investigates.

The Government launched its consultation on measuring child poverty today. What should we make of it?

The road ahead looks bleak for the living standards of low-income families with children. Their living standards are already in serious decline compared to what people define as an essential minimum.

All political parties seem to agree that 'something must be done' about the rising cost of childcare faced by British parents. What that 'something' looks like is harder to agree on. Consensus is in danger of breaking out over the need to address Britain's high childcare costs.

The recent OECD report about child poverty in the UK has provoked a very mixed bag of reactions. Supporters of the last government and its approach to tackling child poverty have hailed the report as their vindication and confirmation that the current cuts will reverse the progress that was made.

Today was the launch of the government's social mobility strategy which is thoughtful and highlights many very important issues. Its life-cycle approach, examining issues and interventions from the early years into adulthood is particularly useful. The use of evidence and research in describing the problems is excellent.

Five years ago, the JRF child poverty programme started as a single project addressing a widespread worry among charities and activists: the Government had committed to halving child poverty by 2010 and ending it by 2020 but had not set out any strategy for doing so. Initially, therefore, we aimed to start mapping out possible paths to meet the targets and highlight how far policies at the time were likely to succeed.