Poverty review ‘understates’ importance of families’ incomes, claims TUC

Families’ incomes are being understated, claims the TUC in response to the poverty review published last week.

Families’ incomes are being understated, claims the TUC in response to the poverty review published last week.
Poverty tsar Frank Field has called for children to be given parenting classes in school and has also urged for private companies to be allowed to bid for Sure Start programmes.
In his poverty report, The Foundation Years, Mr Field suggested the Government should publish ‘life-chance indicators’ to measure success in reducing poverty – he wants the main focus to be on the first five years of a chlid’s life.
He claims money is better spent on projects targeting under fives than on benefits and says parenting is more important for a child’s future prospects than income.
But TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has criticised some aspects of Mr Field’s report.
”There are some welcome ideas in the report, and Frank Field is right to emphasise the importance of children’s early years, and we agree that anti-poverty policy should pay more attention to the health and well-being of babies and toddlers,” he said.
”But the report understates the importance of families’ incomes.  The biggest problem faced by poor people is still that they haven’t got enough money and face debts that put intolerable strains on their finances.
”We have reached a critical point in the debate about poverty, inequality and welfare in Britain.  We remain a country with an exceptional level of economic inequality that needs significant fundamental structural change and government investment.
”Deciding not to spend money on meeting the 2020 target to end child poverty is a political choice, not an economic one.”

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