The Lead Untangles: Does the new Child Poverty Strategy go far enough?

Many of the new policies are welcome – but critics say the plans lack ambition.

Pic: Dieter Van hammée/Unsplash

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Last week, the government finally unveiled its child poverty strategy to very little fanfare. Despite months of delays, the long-awaited plan slipped largely under the radar.

The new strategy, developed by the Child Poverty Taskforce, aims to lift half a million children out of poverty by 2030. Along with the lifting of the two-child-benefit cap announced in last month’s budget, the Government has also promised upfront childcare support for parents on universal credit, £8m to end the use of B&Bs for homeless families and reforms to bring down the cost of baby formula.

These are all welcome moves. But after years without a child poverty strategy, will this go far enough?

What’s in the child poverty strategy?

The main goals of the strategy are, by 2030: to lift 550,000 children out of poverty; increase household incomes for 7.1 million children and reduce deep material poverty for 1.4 million children.

Along with lifting the two-child benefit cap, which will help families immediately in need of support, the Government has pledged to tackle both the root causes of child poverty. This means addressing structural causes such as housing, employment, income, the cost of living and failing public services.

The core aspects of the strategy will be “boosting family incomes, driving down the cost of essentials and strengthening local support”. Many of the policies in the strategy have already been announced.

To boost incomes, the government points to the increased National Living Wage, strengthened rights at work through the Employment Rights Bill and the above inflation increase to the basic rate of Universal Credit, estimated to be worth annually £725 for a single parent aged 25 or over or £1135 for a couple with children by 2029/30. It is also expanding childcare support, including extending Universal Credit childcare support beyond two children and shifting to upfront payments rather than reimbursement, and has begun rolling out free breakfast clubs in England, “to support parents to boost their working hours”. Jobcentres will also adopt a more tailored approach for parents, taking into account childcare availability, health conditions and caring responsibilities.

Driving down the cost of essentials looks like expanding free school meals in England to all children in households in receipt of Universal Credit, investing £39 billion in a new 10-year Social and Affordable Homes Programme in England, aiming for 300,00 new homes, and increasing the weekly Healthy Start food voucher amounts for pregnant women and young children to make food more affordable.

Strengthening local support includes investment in Best Start Family Hubs and similar centres. Local authorities will also be legally required to notify schools, health visitors, and GPs when a child enters temporary accommodation, ensuring joined-up care and preventing support gaps.

How will child poverty be measured?

The strategy also outlined the need for a consistent approach to measuring poverty. Currently, there isn’t just one way to count children in poverty, making the truth of the crisis difficult to determine.

The Government will focus on two core measures over the full ten year course of the strategy: relative low income after housing costs [AHC] and deep material poverty.

The latter is a new measure based on a “material deprivation” test. Families will be asked whether they can afford 13 items identified by the public as the most essential, covering basic needs such as food, heating and housing. If a family is lacking four or more of those items for financial reasons, they will be deemed to be in deep material poverty.

Does the strategy go far enough?

While the move to lift the two-child benefit cap has been hailed as the most effective policy to lift children out of poverty, some people are disappointed by the full strategy.

The strategy mainly consists of policies that have already been announced, rather than new policies directly targeted at children in poverty – and there will still be some 4 million children living in poverty once the measures are implemented.

Although any strategy is better than none, some charities and campaigners believe it lacks ambition.

What are people saying?

Phillip Anderson, the Strategic Director for External Affairs at the National Children’s Bureau [NCB], said: “Abolishing the two-child limit is a hell of a centre piece, but beyond that it’s mainly a summary of previously announced policies and commitments.

“The really big thing for me is it misses the opportunity to talk about the longer term. It was supposed to be a 10-year strategy, we wanted to see real ambition and ideally legally binding targets for reducing poverty.

“The government itself says there will still be around four million children living in poverty after these measures and the strategy has very little to say to them.”

Katie Schmuecker, Principal Policy Advisor at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said: “The government has put its money where its mouth is on the manifesto commitment to reduce child poverty and recognised the severe and acute poverty an alarming number of children are facing.

“This child poverty strategy will mean fewer children facing unacceptable hardship, but more will be needed to ensure every child gets the best start.”

Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group Alison Garnham said: “We wholeheartedly support the government’s decision to do the right thing and scrap the two-child limit. Much like the expansion of free school meals, it will improve the lives of children up and down the country. And with record high levels of child poverty in the UK we welcome the government’s recognition that publication of the strategy is only the first step. There is much to do and we must now build on this momentum to achieve more tangible change for children.”

Tom Wernham, a Senior Research Economist at the Institute of Fiscal Studies, said: “The government has not set an explicit numerical target for child poverty, beyond stating that it wants child poverty to fall. The policies included in the poverty strategy are expected to reduce child relative income poverty (after housing costs) by around 550,000 at the end of this parliament. 450,000 of this fall results from the reversal of the two-child limit announced at the Budget. Expansion of free school meals to all children in families on universal credit drives the rest of the fall in the headline poverty measure.”

What happens next?

Policies will begin being rolled out, with the two-child benefit cap being lifted immediately, and free school meals expanded from September 2026. The Government will publish a baseline report next summer, providing the first detailed assessment of child poverty metrics after the strategy’s launch.■

About The Lead Untangles: In an era where misinformation is actively and deliberately used by elected politicians and where advocates and opposers of beliefs state their point of view as fact, sometimes the most useful tool reporters have is to help readers make sense of the world. If there is something you’d like us to untangle, email ella@thelead.uk.

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