The number of children living in families where one or both parents are working part-time but want full-time work has increased by 46 per cent since David Cameron came to office.

Official figures obtained by Labour show that the number of children in this situation has increased by over 200,000 under this government – from 443,000 in 2010 to 646,000 in 2013.

The figures will come as a blow to the government which this week launched a child poverty strategy – but failed to agree new targets or measures to deal with the problem.

Catherine McKinnell MP, Labour’s shadow Treasury Minister, who obtained the figures from the Office for National Statistics, said:

“While Ministers have been squabbling about how poverty is defined, these figures show how much tougher life is for families under David Cameron’s government.

“Getting parents into work should be the key step towards increasing their standard of living and reducing the number of children living in poverty. But for far too many families at the moment being in work just isn’t enough to meet the basic cost of living.

“Labour will back families and help to make work pay. We will expand free childcare for working parents, strengthen the minimum wage and crack down on exploitative use of zero-hours contracts. And we also want to introduce a lower 10p starting rate of tax, to help 24 million people on middle and low incomes.

“But while ordinary families are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis, David Cameron has given a £3 billion tax cut to the top one per cent of earners. We’d reverse that after the election as part of our plan to get the deficit down in a fairer way.“

Ends

Editor’s note:

1. The Parliamentary Answer to Catherine McKinnell can be found here:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmhansrd/cm140224/text/140224w0007.htm#140224w0007.htm_spnew30