An extra 200,000 children will be pushed into absolute poverty by the coalition's policy of capping annual increases in many benefits and tax credits, according to an estimate released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The estimate was uncovered by a freedom of information request submitted by the Child Poverty Action Group.
Defining absolute poverty as living on less than 60 per cent of median disposable household income as at 2010-11, uprated for inflation, the DWP gives a 'broad estimate' that around 200,000 extra children will be living in absolute poverty by the end of 2015-16 (the last year of the three-year cap on annual increases in most working-age benefits/tax credits).
Tax and benefit changes announced by the Chancellor in his 2012 Autumn Statement will mean an extra 200,000 children living in poverty by 2017-18, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank.
The Autumn Statement announced several important changes to the tax and benefit system from April 2013 – including a higher personal tax allowance and a 1 per cent cap, for three years, on the annual uprating of most working-age benefits and tax credits.
Tax and benefit changes announced by the Chancellor in his 2012 Autumn Statement will mean an extra 200,000 children living in poverty by 2017-18, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank.
The Autumn Statement announced several important changes to the tax and benefit system from April 2013 – including a higher personal tax allowance and a 1 per cent cap, for three years, on the annual uprating of most working-age benefits and tax credits.
A new analysis has shown that tax and benefit changes under the coalition government, combined with low wage growth, will leave 690,000 more children living below the minimum income standard by 2015.
The analysis was commissioned by the TUC from the independent Landman Economics consultancy. It examines the current and future impact of various tax and benefit changes since 2010 – including universal credit, direct and indirect tax changes and real wage growth – on the incomes of different households and family types.
43 bishops of the Church of England have signed a letter to the Sunday Telegraph warning that benefits cuts being proposed by the coalition will have a 'deeply disproportionate' effect on children.
The letter was sent ahead of the House of Lords debate on the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill, which will cap annual increases in many benefits at one per cent for the next three years, regardless of inflation.
More than one million children living in poverty in England are missing out on free school meals, according to research from a children's charity. The Children's Society says there are some areas where more than two-thirds of children in poverty are missing out.
The charity has produced an interactive map showing the situation in each of the 533 parliamentary constituencies in England.
Good progress is being made in implementing the 'troubled families' programme, according to the coalition government. Figures gathered from local authorities in England show that between April 2012 and January 2013 62,000 families were identified as coming within the scope of the programme, with their names and addresses included in a database. The government's target is to identify and 'turn around' the lives of 120,000 families by 2015.
The figures released by the government have been collated from data submitted by upper-tier local authorities in support of claims for result payments under the programme. They do not constitute official statistics.
Governments in both developed and developing countries are not taking widely agreed-upon steps in critical areas known to make a difference to children's opportunities, according to a new report.
The report presents comparative data, never previously available, on child policies in 193 countries – nearly every country in the world. It reveals how millions of children across the globe face conditions that limit their opportunities to thrive and reach their full potential. It maps the answers to key poverty-related questions such as:
Fuel poverty can have severe and life-long effects on children, according to a new report from the Association for the Conservation of Energy. The authors point out that although it is widely recognised that fuel poverty has severe effects on older people, the position of families and children has been relatively neglected.
Children are the age group in Europe at the highest risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to a new statistical report from the European Commission. And the relative risk for children in the UK is greater than the average for EU countries as a whole.
The conclusions in the report are based on figures from EU-SILC (Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) for 2011, the latest year available.