Labour must do more to tackle child poverty

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 15th Oct 2007

A newly published report by Save the Children has concluded that Labour will miss its own child poverty target by 14 years. Save the Children has estimated that an additional £4 billion must be made available by March 2009 if the government is to meet its target of halving child poverty in the UK by 2010. Swansea Council's Young People's Champion Councillor Claire Waller commented,

"Labour's complex welfare system has failed to deliver enough support to children or give their parents real incentives to work. That is why the Lib Dems have called for the system to be simplified by the introduction of a single working age benefit."

"Neither Labour nor the Tories appear willing to tackle the real causes of Britain's shameful record on child poverty. By contrast, we would take urgent steps like the scrapping of the Child Trust Fund, which Labour themselves admit will have no effect on inequality until 2020, and put the money into early years education instead."

"It is Lib Dem proposals to invest in education for the poorest children, to raise child benefit and to better target tax credits that would bring us closer to ending child poverty for good."