Child Poverty
February 13th, 2008Government figures released last week show that 1 in 5 of children in the UK between 1 and 15 are living in households that are in receipt of benefit. The figures for South Swindon reveal that in April 2007, 3290 children were living in households that were in receipt of one of the following benefits: Income Support, Jobseekers Allowance, Incapacity Benefit, Severe Disablement Allowance and Pension Credit. Those children who are with a parent/carer who is severely incapacitated face real challenges, but the issues facing them are not solely related to income. All of these families will of course be entitled to Child Benefit. However, the figures reveal a worrying number of children who statistically are in a position of relative poverty. We were told by this Government that they would eradicate child poverty, but our figures are still the worst in Europe.
Very often, the individual stories that I hear from families in this position are ones of resilience and of making the very best of things. Income levels are by no means the only way of measuring individual and family success, but they are an important indicator of Government success. The number of children in this position is rising. It is clear that Government schemes to get people back into work have not succeeded. The much-vaunted “New Deal”, designed to help young people into work, is a conspicuous failure. The number of young unemployed people is rising.
This is not a time for the Government to shrug off criticism upon the basis that it has a monopoly of compassion and wisdom in this area. The alleviation of poverty has been at the heart of Tory thinking for 150 years. Disraeli talked about the “elevation of the condition of the people” at the Crystal Palace before his reforming 1874 administration took office and passed the most significant set of social reforms of the nineteenth century. The work of Tory Governments in the 1930s to improve working conditions by introducing paid holidays is far too often overlooked by those commentators who believe that 1945 is when things changed.
Last month, the Conservatives published a Green Paper entitled “Work to Welfare”. Its aims are to help create more stability for families via welfare reform. The assessment process needs to be quickened and improved. Those agencies responsible for helping to get people into work will be paid on the basis of the results they achieve. We mustn’t be afraid to re-classify some of those currently on incapacity benefit as unemployed, even if the statistics start to look worse. The need for limits to the receipt of out of work benefits was also outlined. Poverty will only be overcome if politicians are brave enough to tackle a system in which there are too few incentives for people to return to work.
The modern phrase that is used across the spectrum is “Social Justice”. There are philosophical and practical reasons why, as a Tory, I prefer to use the simple phrase: “removing poverty”. I hope that Conservative policy in this area will prove to be a modern example of practical politics, rather than Labour handwringing.
