Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, commenting ahead of a reported announcement on child poverty, said:

“Child poverty is set to rise by 400,000 under David Cameron’s Government, and for the first time since records began, there are more people in poverty who are working than who are out of work. Any attempt by the government to change the way poverty is measured won’t do anything to help the children whose lives are being damaged by the rise in poverty we are seeing under this Government.”

Child Poverty – David Cameron’s record

• Child poverty fell by over one million under the last Labour Government.

• Under David Cameron the years of progress made by Labour in tackling child poverty are being reversed. The Institute for Fiscal Studies forecasts that child poverty will rise by 400,000 during this Parliament and by 900,000 by the end of the decade.

No. of children in relative child poverty (millions)
2011-12 2.3
2012-13 2.4
2013-14 2.6
2014-15 2.7
2015-16 2.7
2016-17 2.8
2017-18 2.9
2020-21 3.2
IFS, January 2014, p.24, http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn144.pdf

• The Government has admitted that its decision to cut tax credits and benefits in real terms is set to push 200,000 children into poverty.

“We estimate that the uprating measures in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 will result in around an extra 200,000 children being deemed by this measure to be in relative income poverty compared to uprating benefits by CPI.”
Esther McVey, Hansard, written answer, 15 January 2013, Column 715W

• 100,000 of those children live in working households according to the Government’s own figures.

• According to the latest figures two-thirds of children in poverty live in working households – a record proportion.

• Rather than a proper plan to tackle rising child poverty under them it is reported that the Government’s response is to redefine what constitutes ‘child poverty’.

• This is completely at odds with what David Cameron said in opposition, when he stressed the importance of measuring and acting upon relative child poverty.

“I believe that poverty is an economic waste and a moral disgrace. In the past, we used to think of poverty only in absolute terms – meaning straightforward material deprivation. That’s not enough. We need to think of poverty in relative terms – the fact that some people lack those things which others in society take for granted. So I want this message to go out loud and clear: the Conservative Party recognises, will measure and will act on relative poverty.”
David Cameron, Scarman Lecture, 24 November 2006

“The easiest way I think to define it is that relative poverty is that if some people don’t have what others take for granted and I think it is important not just to say poverty is destitution and there’s a safety net, but as a society grows richer, we want everyone to grow richer and I think relative poverty is important.”
David Cameron, BBC Breakfast, 24 November 2006

“I think the best way to define it is as the figures do, that if you have less than 60% of the average household income you are relatively poor, and I think that is the right measure and I think it’s right to look at relative poverty and that’s what a Conservative government would do. But what I think is really important is what our research has found in doing this policy work is if you look at people with 40% of household income, people who really are in you know, deep poverty, that the amount of people in deep poverty has actually gone up.

“It’s a staggering fact that in the last 10 years Labour have done…tried so hard and spent so much money on this issue and yet deep poverty in Britain has got worse. There are 750,000 more people with less than 40% of household income and they’re stuck in poverty for just as long and it seems to me that is a really important fact that we have to digest and act on and make sure we reduce poverty in this country.”
David Cameron, BBC Radio 4 Today Programme, 24 November 2006

• David Cameron claimed that those who pretend poverty isn’t relative are “wrong”.

“So poverty is relative – and those who pretend otherwise are wrong.”
David Cameron, Scarman Lecture, 24 November 2006

• Iain Duncan Smith claimed that all forms of poverty “absolute and relative” must be dealt with.

“In modern times, poverty has been a difficult issue for the Conservative Party to deal with. However, as this Report makes clear, it is too important an issue to be left to the Labour Party. All forms of poverty – absolute and relative – must be dealt with. Unless all parts of society are connected, then we risk social dislocation and exclusion for millions of people.”
Iain Duncan Smith, foreword to Conservative Party Social Justice Policy Group report “Economic Dependency”, December 2006, p. 3