Child poverty is set to increase significantly by 2020, according to new forecasts from the Institute for Fiscal Studies – wiping out the gains made under the previous Labour Government. By 2020 nearly one in four children will be living in poverty.
The IFS report was prepared at the request of the Northern Ireland Executive, and it includes separate projections for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and England and Wales (combined) as well as for the UK as a whole.
The report's authors conclude that statutory targets to reduce relative child poverty by 2020-21 are almost certain to be missed by a substantial margin. The government should either produce a credible plan for meeting the targets or set different ones, they say.
The Child Poverty Action Group added: '[These] figures must lead to a rethink of a strategy that not only isn’t working but looks set to turn the child poverty problem into a child poverty crisis in the years ahead. As a result of the government’s flawed strategy, over 1.1 million more children will be living in poverty by 2020-21.'
Source: James Browne, Andrew Hood and Robert Joyce, Child and Working-Age Poverty in Northern Ireland from 2010 to 2020, Commentary 78, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Links: IFS Commentary | CPAG press release | Labour Party press release | Guardian report | Telegraph report