2. Tackling child poverty
Alison Garnham
CEO, Child Poverty Action Group

3. Peabody Conference:
Child poverty – challenges and
policy responses
10 December 2012

4. Stealing away children’s life chances
• Education divide – poorer children 9 months
behind (Hirsch D, 2007)
• Health divide – socio-economic conditions mean
greater risk heart disease, death by stroke,
disability, poor mental health (Spencer N, 2008)
• Wellbeing divide – negative impact on
relationship with parents, educational orientation,
low self-worth and risky behaviour (Tomlinson
and Walker, 2009)
• Costs £25 billion a year in public spending (JRF,
2008)

5. 2012/13

7. The uprating game

8. Progress to date
Actual figures and projections:
BHC AHC
Baseline year 98/99: 3.4 million 4.4 million
Latest official figures 10/11: 2.3 million 3.6 million
IFS estimate for 20/21: 3.3 million 4.3 million
Gov’t target for 20/21: 1.3 million* N/A
(* 10% of children based on 2010/11 population count)
Sources: HBAI 1998/99-2010/11; Children and Working-Age poverty from 2010
to 2020, IFS 2010.

9. Historical Trend – since 1970

10. Progress made and lessons learned
• Largest reductions in child poverty in OECD
between mid-1990s and 2008 (Bradshaw 2012)
• Child wellbeing improved on 36 out of 48
indicators between 1997 – 2010 (Bradshaw,
2012)
• Deprivation levels fell as did money worries
• extra money led to increased spending on fruit
and vegetables, children’s clothes and books –
spending on alcohol and cigarettes fell (Stewart,
2012)

11. Not just due to income transfers
• Parents helped into work, childcare strategy and active
labour market policies – worklessness fell until 2008
• Lone parent employment rate 45 – 57% (1997-2010)
accounts for ¼ of falls in child poverty (Brewer, 2012)
• between 1997 and 2010, mothers in couples - 68 – 71%,
and fathers in couples - 88.7 - 89.4%
• In 2008, before the recession, the employment rate for
fathers had been 91%
• No. of children failing to get any qualification declined
from 35,000 in 1999 to 6,000 in 2010
• No. children on FSM getting at least 5 GCSEs rose from
36% to 65% closing attainment gap by one third between
2007 and 2011

12. Child poverty set to rise
• Latest IFS projections show child poverty will rise
by 800,000 between 2010 and 2020
• Rise of 900,000 children on ‘absolute’ measure
• Also likely rises in persistent poverty and
deprivation levels
• After Autumn statement – will now be more

13. Universal Credit – poverty reducing
• Will reduce child poverty by 350,000 compared to current tax
and benefit regime
• But overwhelmed by other tax and benefit changes, inflation
and stagnating wages – child poverty still to rise
• No losers at point of introduction? Simple? Makes work pay?
Protects vulnerable?
• Improves ‘unemployment trap’ – transition to work
• Still embodies the ‘poverty trap’ – high marginal tax rates,
capital rules, caps on housing costs
• 65% taper - not much improvement to work incentives.
Influence behavior? (original plan was 55%)
• IFS preliminary analysis - worse incentives to work and
progress in work for single parents and partners in couples
• Childcare costs reduced from 80% to 70%
• Can be fixed – but bad news in the Autumn statement

14. Policy responses
• Early years – 15 hours disadvantaged 2 year
olds, and 3-4s
• Pupil Premium
• Child poverty strategy – ‘causes’
• Social justice strategy – ‘troubled families’

15. Pupil premium
• Ofsted report (Sept 2012) - real concern funds
being used to "plug the gap" in school budgets
• Survey of 262 schools - more than half said
premium making "little or no difference" to the
way they were being managed and operated
• Sutton Trust survey (Aug 2012) showed 2-3% of
schools using PP for interventions that had a
track record of reducing the education gap
• 28% teachers didn’t know what PP spent on

16. Social justice strategy – ‘troubled
families’?
• Disruption? Irresponsibility? Crime? Drug and alcohol
abuse? Neighbours from hell?
• Evidence-based policy or policy-based evidence?
• 120,000 families – FACS survey data
• Criteria: no parent in work, poor quality housing, no
qualifications, low income, cannot afford some
food/clothing items, mother mental ill-health, parent
longstanding disability or illness
• Social justice strategy: ‘These families…can cause
serious problems for their local communities through
crime and anti-social behaviour’
• Workless families where generations have never worked?
Can find 15,000 in data (Gregg et al, also Shildrick et al)

17. Why are children in London poor?
• London has the highest rate of child poverty of any
English region, with as many poor children as in Scotland
and Wales put together.
• Thirty-seven per cent (592,000) of all children in London
live below the poverty line.
• London Child Poverty Commission (2008):
• The underlying causes of this entrenched child poverty
are surprisingly simple – the employment rate among
parents, in particular mothers, is much lower than
elsewhere in the country, driven in part by a lack of part-
time jobs and flexible childcare, as well as higher housing,
childcare and living costs.

18. What has been happening to child poverty
rates in London?

19. What’s been happening to parental
employment rates?
Worklessness among couple households with children
1986-2012
30
25
20
Inner Lon
15
Outer Lon
10
S East
5
0

20. What’s been happening to parental
employment rates?
Worklessness among couple households with children
1986-2012
30
25
20
Inner Lon
15
Outer Lon
10
S East
5
0

21. What’s the size of the parental employment
gap in London?
Employment rates in London (%) 2011

22. Why are parental employment rates still low?
• Cost of childcare 24 per cent higher in London.
• Low levels of part time jobs – key lacks are in
administrative and secretarial occupations.
• No London premium at lower end of Labour
market – makes part time work difficult.
• No dedicated cross London parental employment
scheme.

23. What can Local Authorities do on
employment?
• Lead by example: advertise all vacancies as available for
part time and flexible working.
• Use community benefit clauses within procurement
arrangements to ensure that companies offer (flexible)
jobs to local residents.
• Consider developing targeted employment programmes
for parents (cf Islington)
• Introduce specific targets on parental employment in child
poverty strategies.
• Prioritise childcare – extended schools.

24. What else can local authorities do
within child poverty strategies?
• Invest in Free School Meals.
• Target educational attainment gaps.
• Benefit take up and advice + support with wide ranging
reforms coming in in April. Prioritise families for
discretionary support?
• Ensure child poverty prioritised across other areas of
council – e.g. Health and Wellbeing Boards.
• Work with parents, children, voluntary sector to
understand local family needs.
• Invest in housing stock and tackle poor quality in private
rented sector.

25. Policy responses needed
• Investment in the early years (ECEC) – yes
• Early intervention – yes
• Pupil Premium – yes, if properly monitored
• Don’t neglect income – child poverty scandal
worsening
• Last time child poverty rose on this scale – so did
indicators of multiple deprivation
• Improve UC – a mixed bag – even in own terms
• Improve incentives to work and progress in work
– lower taper, improve disregards
• Local action needed too

26. What works?
• Worth reminding ourselves - what benefits all
families, including the ‘squeezed middle’ also
benefits poor families – good quality jobs, decent
pay levels (living wage), decent Child Benefit,
universal childcare, family-friendly jobs, decent
insurance benefits, high quality services,
affordable housing, affordable transport - poverty
prevention
• Crisis - not inevitable – it’s what will happen if no
action taken to stop it