Does the Government have the means to make child poverty history in Britain?

Robert Chote

Published on 19 June 2005

This article was published in The Independent on 19th June 2005.

Tax credits have been Gordon Brown's big idea for the British welfare state. He has used them to deliver unprecedented sums of money to poorer families and begin to reverse the steep rise in child poverty seen throughout the 1980s.

But, like all welfare reformers, the Chancellor must struggle with the "iron triangle" - the conflict between encouraging work, reducing poverty and keeping down costs. With the Government having set itself increasingly challenging targets for child poverty right out to 2020, these conflicts can only intensify.

Authors

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Robert Chote