THE Chancellor announced welfare reforms which he said would lift up to 250,000 children out of poverty and maintain progress towards the government's goal of halving child poverty by 2010.
Campaigners welcomed the changes to child benefit and child tax-credit, which will cost around £900 million annually once they have come fully into effect.
Charities also hailed Alistair Darling's reaffirmation of the government's commitment to fo
rmer prime minister Tony Blair's target of ending child poverty in the UK by 2020.
Mr Darling announced funding totalling £125 million over the next three years for pilot projects to help take forward the fight against child poverty in the next decade.
Some 600,000 children have been lifted out of relative poverty since 1999, but experts have warned that the government is drifting off track for the 2010 target of 1.7 million.
Under yesterday's changes, the rate of child benefit paid for a family's first child will increase from £18.80 a week in 2008-9 to £20 from April 2009 – a year earlier than planned. The 6.4 per cent hike, well above the rate of inflation, will cost the Treasury £210 million.
The child element of child tax-credit will be increased from April 2009 by £50 a year above inflation, leaving families with two children and a household income below £28,000 more than £130 a year better off – at a cost to the Exchequer of £340 million.
And from October next year, parents' income from child benefit will be disregarded when calculating housing and council tax benefits, saving a working family with one child on low income £17 a week. Mr Darling said the change, costing £350 million in its first full year of operation, would ensure that parents were better off in work than on benefits.
Mr Darling told the House of Commons: "There is no greater moral imperative than to make sure that every child has the highest aspiration and ambition. And the best possible opportunity to go as far as they have the talent to go.
"Not some children, but every child. If we are to build a fairer future for our children then we must eradicate child poverty in Britain."
Launching a report entitled Ending Child Poverty: Everybody's Business, Mr Darling said that getting parents into work would be at the centre of efforts to hit the 2020 target.
Ministers would develop a "contract" with parents, undertaking to provide the support families need to move into work in return for families' commitment to improve their situations where they can.
Campaign chairman Martin Narey, the chief executive of Barnardo's, described the announcements as "very encouraging". He went on: "A lot more needs to be done and we will continue to put pressure on the government to meet the 2010 commitment but this is dramatically good news for children living in poverty."
However, Douglas Hamilton, Save the Children child-poverty spokesman, said there were concerns that the Chancellor's investment did not match his ambition.
"The Chancellor re-committed to ending child poverty but despite the new investment the government will miss its own 2010 target by as many as 450,000 children.
"The measures the Chancellor announced are designed to lift 250,000 children across the UK out of poverty – a quarter of a million children's lives will be improved.
"To keep the promise of lifting these children out of poverty by 2010, Save the Children are urging the government to introduce seasonal grants of £100 per child twice a year for the poorest families, and an extra £100 per family in winter to help with costs like fuel."
But the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, Kate Green, said: "This is excellent news for Britain's poorest children. It keeps the 2010 target to halve child poverty in reach. It won't take us all the way there, but today the intent is clear and a significant step forward has been taken."
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said Mr Darling's "piecemeal" reforms to the tax-credit system would not get him "anywhere near" meeting the 2010 target on child poverty.
Mr Clegg said: "The reality is that the government's approach has failed. If we are to abolish child poverty for good, we must not only increase income, we must increase opportunity, too.
"These are the people most in ten years and yet another budget, they are still no nearer being given the true support they need."
Labour left-winger John McDonnell was another dissenting voice. He said that, even on the Chancellor's own figures, the plans would leave 2.5 million children in poverty by the end of the decade. Mr McDonnell, chairman of the Labour representation committee, accused Mr Darling of "admitting defeat".
"We were all led to believe that the Chancellor would make a major announcement today to get the government back on course to meet its target to halve child poverty by 2010.
"Instead, the Chancellor has admitted defeat in the war against child poverty and has confirmed that the government will not meet its 2010 target – and will leave over 2.5 million children still living in poverty in one of the richest countries in the world."
FAILING TO SEE THE BENEFITAS A single mother with a young daughter, Lynne Devlin, above, can see nothing in the budget that will help improve her quality of life.
Reacting to changes to child benefit, which will increase from £18.80 a week to £20 from April 2009, she is singularly unimpressed.
"The extra child benefit is hardly going to pay for a bag of nappies. It always seems to be those on benefits that get the extra help."
The medical secretary, who lives in Ayr, gave up a full-time, well paid job after giving birth to her daughter, Holly-Marie, but says she is forced to work part-time because of the prohibitive cost of childcare. The young mother believes the government is penalising those women who are keen to go out to work and support their families.
"I own my own home so I have to work. If I worked full-time I'd be worse off financially, so I have to work part-time. I spend £377 a month on childcare. It's a catch-22 situation because I'm penalised for working.
It's unfair to the people who want to get off their backsides and work."
The full article contains 1076 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
