Struggling families need to be prioritised in order to strengthen the economy and get the Government back on track towards meeting its target to end child poverty by 2020, the Child Poverty Action Group has said in a letter to the Chancellor ahead of his Autumn Statement.
Chief Executive, Alison Garnham, said: “The Chancellor needs to throw struggling families a lifeline to prevent them falling into poverty because we know from the 1980s and 1990s that child poverty damages childhoods, destroys life chances and costs the economy billions every year in lost taxes, higher benefits and avoidable NHS and other public spending.
“Doing the right thing for struggling families would be doing the right thing for the wider economy. By sticking to its Family and Fairness tests and protecting the incomes of families facing hardship, the Government can also protect demand in the economy and keep money flowing through the tills of Britain’s businesses.
On speculation about benefit and tax credit uprating, she added: “We now hear that benefits may not have a further cut, but that tax credits may be frozen to fund jobs for young people. It’s right to invest in jobs for today’s young people who are tomorrow’s parents, but it’s completely wrong to raid the incomes of hard-pressed families to fund it. The investment the economy needs to get back to growth and job creation simply does not exist in the pockets of the poorest. The promise that the broadest shoulders will bear the greatest load must be kept.
“Despite real improvements in benefits for children in recent years, the poorest families have seen their incomes fall behind for decades, steadily detaching them and their children from national prosperity in the good times and leaving them totally exposed in the bad times.”
