The government has published an annual progress report on implementation of the European Union’s strategy for inclusive economic growth – including the target of lifting at least 20 million people out of the risk of poverty and exclusion by 2020. The government says it ‘remains committed to eradicating child poverty, increasing social mobility and ensuring social justice’. It aims to do this by:

• focusing on prevention and early intervention
• concentrating interventions on ‘recovery and independence, not maintenance’
• promoting work for those who can as the most sustainable route out of poverty, while offering unconditional support to those who are severely disabled and who cannot work
• recognising that the most effective solutions will often be designed and delivered at a local level
• ensuring that interventions provide ‘a fair deal for the taxpayer’.

The report adds that the new universal credit – due to replace a range of working-age means-tested benefits from October 2013 onwards – will result in some 900,000 people being lifted out of poverty, including 350,000 children and 550,000 working-age adults. Overall, the government estimates that 2.8 million households will have a higher benefit entitlement, with 1.3 million receiving over £25 per week more.

Source: Europe 2020: UK National Reform Programme 2012, HM Treasury

Link: Report