For all the government's targets, there is no plan to stop child poverty's rise

For all the government's targets, there is no plan to stop child poverty's rise.

The last government pledged to halve child poverty. Spending billions of pounds on benefits and tax credits for families with children reduced it by nearly a quarter - significant, but a long way short of the ambition. The current government is signed up to even more ambitious targets. The Child Poverty Act, which the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats voted for in 2009, commits the government to dramatic reductions in child poverty by 2020 despite the much more constrained fiscal environment we now face.