Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T22:51:58.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Child Poverty in Britain: Past Lessons and Future Prospects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Richard Dickens
Richard Dickens*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, University of Sussex
*
E-mail:r.f.dickens@sussex.ac.uk.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The previous Labour government pledged to abolish child poverty and introduced a range of welfare reforms that emphasised the role of work as the primary route out of poverty. This culminated in the Child Poverty Act (2010) which commits all future governments to the abolition of child poverty. This paper examines New Labour's record on child poverty and examines the factors responsible for its change. While the welfare reforms of the late 1990s did increase work among families with children, this didn't translate into large falls in child poverty. Those entering work still relied on substantial increases in government benefits to lift them over the poverty line. The current coalition government has reaffirmed its commitment to the Child Poverty Act and is also emphasising the role of work. The lessons of the past decade cast severe doubt on whether the current coalition government strategy of promoting work will be any more successful in reducing child poverty. With planned benefit cuts in the pipeline we could well experience some substantial increases in child poverty over the coming years.

Keywords

Child povertywelfare reformpoverty decompositionI33I38J13
Type
Research Article
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 218 , October 2011 , pp. R7 - R19
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

The author would like to thank two anonymous referees for their comments. This work contains data from the Family Resources Survey which has been made available by the Department for Work and Pensions through the Data Archive and has been used with permission. Neither the DWP nor the Data Archive bear any responsibility for the analysis or interpretation of the data reported here.

References

Brewer, M., Browne, J., Jin, W. (2011), ‘Universal credit: a preliminary analysis’, IFS Briefing note 116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, M., Browne, J., Joyce, R. (2011), Child and Working Age Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2010, Institute for Fiscal Studies Commentary C121.Google Scholar
Brewer, M., Duncan, A., Shepherd, A., Suarez, M. (2006), ‘Did working families' tax credit work? The impact of in-work support on labour supply in Great Britain’, Labour Economics, 13(6), pp. 699–720.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickens, R. (2011), ‘Child poverty in Britain: did work work?’, In Gregg, P., Wadsworth, J. (eds), The Labour Market in Winter: The State of Working Britain, Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Dickens, R., Ellwood, D.T. (2003), ‘Child poverty in Britain and the United States’, Economic Journal, 113, 488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickens, R., Ellwood, D.T. (2004), ‘Whither poverty in Britain and the United States? The determinants of changing poverty and whether work will work’, In Card, D., Blundell, R., Freeman, R. (eds), Seeking a Premier Economy. The Economic Effects of British Economic Reforms 1980–2000, Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Dickerson, A.P., Popli, G. (2011), ‘Persistent poverty and children's cognitive development: evidence from the Millenium Cohort Study’, University of Sheffield Mimeo.Google Scholar
Department for Work and Pensions (2011a), Impact Assessment: Universal Credit, London, DWP.Google Scholar
Department for Work and Pensions (2011b), Households Below Average Income: 1994/95–2009/10, Chapter 4 — Children, London, DWP.Google Scholar
Gregg, P., Harkness, S., Smith, S. (2009), ‘Welfare reform and lone parents in the UK’, The Economic Journal, 119 (535), F38–F65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, P., Wadsworth, J. (2011), ‘Workless households’, In Gregg, P., Wadsworth, J. (eds), The Labour Market in Winter: The State of Working Britain, Oxford, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gregg, P., Waldfogel, J., Washbrook, E. (2006), ‘Family expenditures post-welfare reform in the UK: are low-income families starting to catch up?’, Labour Economics, 13(6), pp. 721–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
HM Government (2011), A New Approach to Child Poverty: Tackling the Causes of Disadvantage and Transforming Families' Lives, London, TSO.Google Scholar
Hills, J. (2002), ‘Following or leading public opinion? Social security policy and public attitudes since 1997’, Fiscal Studies, 23(4), pp. 539–58.Google Scholar
Hills, J. (2003), ‘The Blair government and child poverty: an extra one percent for the kids of the United Kingdom’, In Sawhill, E. (ed.), One Percent for the Kids: New Policies, Brighter Futures for America's Children, Washington DC, Brookings Institution Press.Google Scholar
Jin, W., Joyce, R., Phillips, D., Sibieta, L. (2011), ‘Poverty and inequality in the UK: 2011’, Institute for Fiscal Studies, Commentary C118.Google Scholar
Machin, S. (2011), ‘Changes in UK wage inequality over the last forty years’, In Gregg, P., Wadsworth, J. (eds), The Labour Market in Winter: The State of Working Britain, Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Waldfogel, J. (2010), Britain's War on Poverty, New York, Russell Sage FoundationGoogle Scholar