In his Budget speech, Chancellor Alistair Darling said that increasing tax on alcohol enabled the Government to improve support for families and lift more children out of poverty.
From April 2009, child benefit for a family's first child will rise to £20 a week and the child element of the Child Tax Credit for families on low and middle incomes will increase by £50 a year above inflation. The Treasury said a family with two children, earning up to £28,000 a year, would be more than £130 a year better off.
From October 2009 the rules for housing and council tax benefit will also change so that parents are better off in work than on benefits.
Chair of the Campaign to End Child Poverty and chief executive of Barnardo's, Martin Narey, said, 'The measures will make a real difference to the lives of 250,000 children. In particular, Barnardo's welcomes the plans to disregard child benefit when calculating housing benefit and council tax benefit, which will pull 150,000 children out of poverty.'
Meanwhile, children's minister Beverley Hughes and employment minister Stephen Timms are to lead policies on tackling child poverty in London, where it has fallen less than elsewhere in the UK.
