Budget 2010 - Children and Families
Not the budget to end child poverty
The short answer in this short blog is No. Mr Darling has announced that families, those with one and two-year-olds will get an extra £4 a week in child tax credits, regardless of whether the recipients are single parents, cohabiting or married, repeating Labour's mantra that families come in all shapes and sizes and none is better or worse than the other. This comes into effect from 2012 onwards. 2011 would have been better, of course.
Darling is quick to impose a drastic increase on cider duties (hic) from this Sunday but for some (financial) reason, children need to wait longer than the good old apple wine. He did not mention child benefit which is already set to rise for the first child by 30p to £20.30 a week, and by 20p to £13.40 a month for the second child, starting from next month. It looks like there will be no further rises in the future. Child poverty was mentioned only once in the Budget – not as a problem, but as a success story as nearly a million children have been lifted out of poverty since 1999. But the promise to end child poverty by 2020 still seems likely to be broken. And the target for this year – to halve the number of children in poverty – is already being missed, by more than half a million children who live in poverty, affecting their health, life chances and happiness. The cost of child poverty is high – it is estimated to stand at £25bn per year – so the fight against it should be part of the plan for economic recovery, not something that can be treated on the sidelines.
On the plus side they were no cuts announced that seem to have a detrimental effect on children and their situation. And £4 more per week is much better than the £20 rise in the child tax credit per year, announced in last year's Budget and condemned by child poverty campaigners. However, tackling child poverty no longer seems to be a priority for this Government.