The
latest Households Below Average Income Survey reveals
that relative poverty after housing costs rose from 12.1
million in 2004-05 to a staggering 12.7 million last year.
This is the first rise in poverty under the current Labour
Government who until now had made good progress with anti-poverty
initiatives.
Amongst
those who have moved into poverty are children and this
poses a further setback to the Government target to halve
child poverty by 2010. Using the Government measure of
relative poverty before housing costs we have seen a rise
in the number of children living in poverty by 100,000
in the last year. However, if we take housing costs into
account, the number of children living in relative poverty
has actually risen by 200,000 over this same period.
In
order to achieve the Government target to halve child
poverty by 2010 we need to see 1,000,000 children lifted
out of relative poverty (before housing costs). The retrogression
of child poverty figures further highlights the need for
the Government to take note of recommendations put forward
by researchers at the Institute for Fiscal Studies and
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for at least an additional
£4 billion annual investment in the fight against
child poverty in order to be on course for the 2010 target.
The
Institute for Fiscal Studies further warns that “the
number of working-age adults without children in relative
poverty is at its highest level since comparable records
began in 1961”. The UK Coalition Against Poverty
strongly believes that people without children should
not be penalized and that everyone deserves the right
to live a decent standard of life with an adequate income.
We are concerned that the latest budget threatens to plunge
childless individuals further into poverty, particularly
many people aged 16-25 years who are on low income minimum
wage and are not eligible for tax credits. In order to
rectify this position the Government must extend eligibility
for tax credits to independent 16-25 year olds without
children so that their incomes can rise in line with the
rest of the population.
Eileen
Devaney, National Coordinator for the UK Coalition Against
Poverty has said:
“These
figures are shocking and show that more needs to be done
to help people lift themselves out of poverty.
More
Government investment is required to fight child poverty,
and while the £4 billion identified by researchers
sounds like a lot of money it is a tiny amount when we
think of it as approximately 1% of public spending and
a mere 0.3% of GDP.
However,
we must not lose sight of other groups who are being plunged
into the poverty trap, namely young, childless, working-age
adults on low incomes who are not eligible for tax credits
and who have just seen their income tax rise from 10p
to 20p. If we let young childless people on low incomes
fall into the poverty trap, where will they be if or when
they decide to have children of their own? Poverty is
about having enough money to live a decent standard of
life, and everyone is entitled to that.
At
the UK Coalition Against Poverty we do appreciate the
Labour Government’s recognition of the need to eradicate
poverty and their stated commitment to Public Service
Agreements. However, we are here to remind the Government
of the need to push the anti-poverty agenda further forward,
and of the need for additional investment so that targets
can become a reality in the here and now, not an unachieved
goal”.
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