Abstract
The new government has committed to developing an ambitious child poverty strategy. While the Blair and Brown governments made progress in reducing child poverty, public spending on children has fallen – and child poverty risen - over the past decade.
An ambitious strategy needs to confront this reality. The social security system, which is the most effective policy tool in the fight against child poverty, needs significant investment after a decade of cuts. Reforms introduced in the 2010s have undermined the efficacy of social security, particularly the two-child limit and the benefit cap, but child benefit has lost value and reach too. Investing in social security requires these changes to be reversed, but that is just the start.
Around 7 in 10 children living in poverty live with at least one parent or guardian in work. A strong decent work agenda can play an important role in addressing child poverty, but reforms to Universal Credit are required too. Employment support needs to move from a punitive, harmful and counterproductive sanctions focused approach to a more supportive and collaborative model.
Strengthened social security and decent work can provide the foundations for an all-embracing child poverty strategy that works across a broad range of policy areas, including co-ordinated improvements to childcare, housing, education and services for children and families. Place-based and whole systems approaches can help unpack the interactions between multiple policy interventions and support the development of coordinated approaches.
Development of the child poverty strategy provides an opportunity to broaden the range of voices feeding into policy-making and to strengthen the evidence base. The government must ensure those with lived experiences of life on a low income are included in the development of the strategy. They should work with existing communities - like Changing Realities - to facilitate this. Greater collaboration between policy-makers and the research community can also help strengthen the evidence base informing the strategy during both its development and implementation phases. Social security should be reframed as a force for good; and as a key pillar of a socially just society.
An ambitious strategy needs to confront this reality. The social security system, which is the most effective policy tool in the fight against child poverty, needs significant investment after a decade of cuts. Reforms introduced in the 2010s have undermined the efficacy of social security, particularly the two-child limit and the benefit cap, but child benefit has lost value and reach too. Investing in social security requires these changes to be reversed, but that is just the start.
Around 7 in 10 children living in poverty live with at least one parent or guardian in work. A strong decent work agenda can play an important role in addressing child poverty, but reforms to Universal Credit are required too. Employment support needs to move from a punitive, harmful and counterproductive sanctions focused approach to a more supportive and collaborative model.
Strengthened social security and decent work can provide the foundations for an all-embracing child poverty strategy that works across a broad range of policy areas, including co-ordinated improvements to childcare, housing, education and services for children and families. Place-based and whole systems approaches can help unpack the interactions between multiple policy interventions and support the development of coordinated approaches.
Development of the child poverty strategy provides an opportunity to broaden the range of voices feeding into policy-making and to strengthen the evidence base. The government must ensure those with lived experiences of life on a low income are included in the development of the strategy. They should work with existing communities - like Changing Realities - to facilitate this. Greater collaboration between policy-makers and the research community can also help strengthen the evidence base informing the strategy during both its development and implementation phases. Social security should be reframed as a force for good; and as a key pillar of a socially just society.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publisher | The York Policy Engine/University of York |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Publication status | Published - 24 Sept 2024 |