“The previous Government’s focus on narrow income targets meant they poured resources into short-term fixes to the symptoms of poverty instead of focusing on the causes. We plan to tackle head-on the causes of poverty which underpin low achievement, aspiration and opportunity across generations. Our radical programme of reform to deliver social justice will focus on combating worklessness and educational failure and preventing family and relationship breakdown with the aim of supporting the most disadvantaged groups struggling at the bottom of society.”
A new approach to child poverty, Department for Work and Pensions & Department for Education, 2011
“There is no doubt that there is a very close link between the unprecedented and (nearly) sustained above-inflation increases in financial support for families with children over the past decade, and the unprecedented and (nearly) sustained fall in child poverty.”
Ending child poverty by 2020: progress made and lessons learned; CPAG June 2012
“There were signs that these children worried about asking for even the smallest amounts of money such as the 50p or a £1 that can be charged for a non-school-uniform day.”
The impact of poverty on young children’s experience of school; Goretti Horgan, JRF/Save the Children, 2007
If researching this blog has taught me anything, it’s that I’ll be very suspicious of anyone who claims to know precisely what causes child poverty.
One of the most thorny issues is that of money. There are lots of associations and links between a lack of money and a whole host of outcomes for children, but proving causation is a lot more complicated.