The joint Department for Children, Schools and Families/Department for Work and Pensions Child Poverty Unit is working closely with the devolved administrations to take forward common priorities, co-ordinate approaches and share best practice in developing policy on child poverty.
Our policies are not designed only for those who fall ‘just below the poverty threshold’. We have pledged to eradicate child poverty by 2020; this requires us to tackle child poverty, whatever its depth, in all countries of the UK.
The most common and internationally recognised threshold to measure relative poverty is income below 60 per cent. of median. Specific information regarding low income for the United Kingdom including the number of children living in households with income below 50 per cent. of the median, is available in “Households Below Average Income 1994-95 to 2005-06”. The figures in this publication show that children in Scotland are no more at risk of being in poverty than they are in England.
In fact, the Public Service Agreement target to reduce child poverty by a quarter by 2004-05 was more than met in Scotland. Between 1998-99 and 2004-05, the number of children living in relative low income households in Scotland reduced by 90,000 (from 300,000 to 210,000).
Work, for those who can, remains the most sustainable route out of poverty. The Government are supporting families to escape poverty by increasing employment and raising incomes for those who can work. But we recognise that we need to do more to help those who are out of work or in low paid work. And we are looking again at what more the Government could do to ensure that children in these families are not at a disadvantage.