Welsh Ministers outline concerns on UK plans to tackle child poverty
29 May 2014 02:47 PM
The Welsh Government has told UK Ministers it is
disappointed that the UK draft strategy on Child Poverty fails to
recognise the impact of tax and benefit changes upon child
poverty
In
a letter to Iain Duncan Smith, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and
David Laws, Minister of State for Schools, the Welsh Government has outlined
its views on the UK Government’s draft Child Poverty
Strategy.
The
letter, from Communities and Tackling Poverty Minister, Jeff Cuthbert and
Deputy Minister for Tackling Poverty, Vaughan Gething, says:
“The wider welfare cuts including ‘bedroom
tax’ (spare room subsidy) and sanctions will have a negative impact on
child poverty.
“We were surprised to see reference to the
‘bedroom tax’ (spare room subsidy) as part of the UK draft Strategy
to reduce Child Poverty. We are not aware of any credible evidence that the
‘bedroom tax’ will do anything but hurt and not help reduce Child
Poverty. If such evidence exists to rebut the common experience of increased
arrears and poverty from the bedroom tax please publish it. We remain convinced
that the ‘bedroom tax’ should be abolished.
“IFS research concluded that the poverty-reducing
effect of the introduction of Universal Credit will be outweighed by the impact
of other benefit and tax reforms. These findings from the IFS research (along
with many others) raise significant concerns for Wales in terms of the direct
impact on poverty and child poverty.”
Commenting on the draft strategy, Deputy Minister for
Tackling Poverty, Vaughan Gething said:
“There is no disagreement that employment provides
the best route out of poverty. However the UK draft Strategy does not set out
how the UK Government will help people find better paid jobs.It offers little
practical help for people in work and in poverty. The majority of children in
poverty live in a household where at least one adult works.
“The reality of tax and benefit reform is simply
dismissed by the UK Strategy. No credible objective research exists to show
that the UK Government’s tax and benefit reforms will lift children out
of poverty. Every credible piece of research shows the direct impact of tax and
benefit reform is that more children will fall into poverty. We remain
concerned that until this is acknowledged and addressed we will continue to see
people in low paid jobs struggling to support their children.
“
Links
Child poverty