Government policy

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Iain Duncan Smith, has said he could manage to live on £53 a week 'if he had to'. He had been challenged on the BBC's Today programme by a market trader, David Bennett, who said he was forced to survive on that amount – his net income 'after paying rent and bills'. (The current level of jobseeker's allowance is £71.70 a week for those aged 25 or over.)

Following the programme, an online petition gathered 460,000 signatures, in the space of ten days, calling on Duncan Smith to prove his claim in practice.

Each EU member state should develop a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy, and set 'ambitious, effective' poverty and social targets, says a European campaign network. It highlights the need to ensure that austerity measures do not drive an increase in poverty and exclusion.

The network's recommendations are based on a European Commission analysis of responses to the Europe 2020 strategy for inclusive growth, contained in the so-called 'Country-Specific Recommendations'.

The government has defended its plans for the  new universal credit system, saying 'considerable effort and resource' has been committed to developing tailored arrangements that will help vulnerable claimants cope with the changes needed.

The government was responding to a report by a committee of MPs, published in November 2012, that expressed concerns over the potential impact of the online claims system and the proposed system of single monthly payments.

by Stephen Crossley and John Veit-Wilson

On Monday 21st of January, in response to a question about the government’s commitment to reducing child poverty, the Secretary of State for Work and Pension talked of a:

‘full public consultation about a better way to measure real child poverty that the coalition Government will set and measure ourselves against. Income will be part of it, but not the dominant part ...’ (Hansard, vol. 557, no. 100, p73)