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'Children stuck in poverty trap'
Tackling child poverty is the government's prioority
Two million children will remain in poverty despite attempts by Chancellor Gordon Brown to redistribute money to poor families, researchers suggest.
The study, by the well-respected Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics (LSE), will add to calls for the Chancellor to adopt more measures in the Budget next week to appease traditional Labour supporters.
The research shows that all of the measures announced so far - including the working families tax credit, the higher rates of child benefit, the minimum wage, and the New Deal employment measures - would lift up less than one million children out of poverty at best.
That would go some way towards the government's announced aim of eliminating child poverty over the next twenty years.
But it would still leave Britain with a child poverty rate nearly double that of France, and five times higher than the Netherlands.
Low benefits
Author David Piachaud points out that even if government "Welfare to Work" policies are successful, many families, especially single parents with children under five, will continue to rely on income support.
The government says it is determined to target benefits on the most needy.
But Professor Piachaud worries that such a policy could prove divisive and erode support for families generally.
"There is a danger of creating a two-class system among families in which those who have no pay or low pay receive large amounts of public subsidy while other families receive little or no support from the state," he said.
And many poverty researchers argue that the basic level of benefits has been set at far too low a level, and have urged the government to carry out an assessment of whether income support levels need to be changed.
Calls for redistribution
The government has been under increasing pressure to try and appeal to its traditional working class voters, who have been deserting Labour in droves at the most recent European elections.
New research carried out for the BBC by Professor John Curtice based on the British Election panel survey shows that many of these voters want the government to take action to make incomes more equal.
And although Gordon Brown has increased some benefits to families, the overall tax burden is still far from progressive.
Poor families pay the same percentage of their income in tax as rich families - only they pay more of it as indirect taxes (like VAT and alcohol duties) rather than in income tax.
But a radical strategy risks alienating the middle class voters whose incomes would be hit by any larger redistribution of income.
The LSE study defines poverty as half the average income, in line with the European and UK practice.
The simulation of the effects of tax and benefit changes on households was done using an economic model developed by Holly Sutherland at Cambridge University.
The study, by the well-respected Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics (LSE), will add to calls for the Chancellor to adopt more measures in the Budget next week to appease traditional Labour supporters.
 |
That would go some way towards the government's announced aim of eliminating child poverty over the next twenty years.
But it would still leave Britain with a child poverty rate nearly double that of France, and five times higher than the Netherlands.
Low benefits
Author David Piachaud points out that even if government "Welfare to Work" policies are successful, many families, especially single parents with children under five, will continue to rely on income support.
The government says it is determined to target benefits on the most needy.
 The government is giving more money to children |
"There is a danger of creating a two-class system among families in which those who have no pay or low pay receive large amounts of public subsidy while other families receive little or no support from the state," he said.
And many poverty researchers argue that the basic level of benefits has been set at far too low a level, and have urged the government to carry out an assessment of whether income support levels need to be changed.
Calls for redistribution
The government has been under increasing pressure to try and appeal to its traditional working class voters, who have been deserting Labour in droves at the most recent European elections.
 |
And although Gordon Brown has increased some benefits to families, the overall tax burden is still far from progressive.
Poor families pay the same percentage of their income in tax as rich families - only they pay more of it as indirect taxes (like VAT and alcohol duties) rather than in income tax.
But a radical strategy risks alienating the middle class voters whose incomes would be hit by any larger redistribution of income.
The LSE study defines poverty as half the average income, in line with the European and UK practice.
The simulation of the effects of tax and benefit changes on households was done using an economic model developed by Holly Sutherland at Cambridge University.
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