Labour must offer extra support to working parents, including with childcare and commuting, if it is to fulfil its promise of cutting child poverty, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has argued.
The government’s manifesto promised an “ambitious strategy” on child poverty, and ministers have said they will publish a 10-year plan in the spring.
A report from the Resolution Foundation, titled Working Poverty Out, showed the last Labour government lifted 600,000 children out of poverty, helped by rising employment among single parents.
But it argues that the challenge facing today’s government is different, because 70% of families in poverty now have at least one parent in work – up from 49% in 2000.
Of those households in poverty where there is no working parent, many face significant barriers to a job. Half have a child under five, and 31% have three or more children. Almost half of these families include an adult with a disability, or limiting health condition.
For many of these families, the generosity of the benefits system will be crucial. But the thinktank argues the government should also tackle issues such as the cost and availability of childcare, to help some of these parents into work, and those already in a job to move up the income scale.
Mike Brewer, Resolution Foundation’s interim director and the report’s lead author, said: “With many of the ‘easy gains’ on poverty reduction achieved, the government will need deep pockets, and action on multiple fronts across employment, housing and benefits, to lift significantly more children out of poverty.”
He added: “As well as the obvious moves, like boosting childcare support – particularly for primary school-aged children – and making it easier to commute between workplaces, schools and nurseries – strengthening workers’ rights should help reduce the risks involved in changing jobs.”
Labour’s workers’ rights package, to be implemented in a new employment bill, includes stronger employment protections from day one of employment – after a probation period – and the right to a contract with guaranteed hours.
On childcare, the government has promised to meet the Conservatives’ plans to expand free childcare; but some providers in the sector have said they are struggling to absorb planned increases in national insurance contributions and the minimum wage.
The target of the government’s child poverty strategy is a reduction in the headline rate – measured as the share of households growing up with an income after housing costs that is below 60% of the median. Nearly 30% of children are living in relative poverty after housing costs, according to official statistics.
There are 4.3 million children living in poverty in the UK, according to the charity Action for Children.
Charities and anti-poverty campaigners had urged Labour to scrap the two-child limit on some benefits immediately on coming to power last July, but Rachel Reeves’s October budget left the cap in place.
Just before the budget, the government launched a child poverty taskforce, chaired by the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, and the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, which will report in the coming months.
A government spokesperson said: “No child should be in poverty – that’s why our ministerial taskforce is exploring all levers available across government to give all children the best start in life.”
The spokesperson also pointed to policies including the increase in the national living wage in April, and the rollout of free breakfast clubs for primary school children, as measures ministers have already taken.
