Poverty forecast

The watchdog for children’s rights in Wales has said it is unlikely child poverty will be eradicated in the country by the official 2020 target.

Keith Towler, the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, told a BBC television programme he welcomes the Welsh Government’s aspirations but he called for more honesty from politicians. He said: ‘I think that if they continue to say it – eradicating child poverty by 2020 – they will just cheese people off.’

Towler also questioned whether politicians really understand what people living in poverty are going through.

Source: BBC report, 20 May 2012

Link: BBC report

A charity chief has warned of hardening public attitudes to people in poverty, resulting in an increasing divide between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. He said plans to cut billions from public services risk creating a ‘forgotten Britain’ where the plight of ‘whole swathes of society is getting worse but is invisible to the rest of us’.

Sir Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, made his comments in a speech in London.

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:

Researchers in the Czech Republic have found high levels of material deprivation in UK households compared with a representative sample of four European countries.

The paper compares material deprivation in households in the UK, Czech Republic, Finland, France and Spain, drawing on official (EU-SILC) data. Material deprivation criteria are divided into four groups: financial stress, housing conditions, availability of consumer durables and basic needs.