Wednesday 1 July 2015

CHILD POVERTY TARGETS

The scrapping of the 'relative poverty' target from the Child Poverty Act 2010, as announced by Duncan Smith today, is the clearest indication yet of the nature of the changes to be announced on 8th July. I stand by my prediction that Osborne will be targeting specifically larger families, rather than making a generalised assault on tax credits - and as well as, of course, new restrictions of Housing Benefit and cuts to disability and incapacity benefits.

Meanwhile, the best commentary and analysis on the child poverty targets - and demolition of Duncan Smith's arguments - comes, as so often, from the churches. Specifically the Joint Public Issues Team of the Methodist, URC, Baptists and Church of Scotland. As they say "The question asked by ...[Duncan Smith's] ... proposed measures is not 'Are you poor?'; it is instead "What personal flaws can your poverty be blamed on?"