In the news
Friday 22nd January, 2010
Child poverty targets are diverting policymakers from the causes to the symptoms of poverty
Neil O'Brien writes on Oxfam's UK Poverty Post about problems with poverty policy
"As Professor Peter Saunders pointed out in a recent Policy Exchange paper, the current targets are not really child poverty targets at all. They are in fact income inequality targets – aimed at reducing the number of children living in households below 60% of median income."
"Among many other perverse aspects of using this as a target, it means that recessions “appear” to reduce child poverty, because the median income falls while the incomes of those on benefits do not. This suggests there’s something seriously wrong with the target."
