Nursery World - Higher tax credits would cut poverty

Giving poor families 3 more per child per week in the child tax credit would enable the Government to reach its target for reducing child poverty to 3.1 million by 2004-05, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). The IFS said its proposal would cost 1bn and would benefit the poorest 3.5 million UK families with children. But it warned that any increases to means-tested benefits and tax credits aimed at meeting the poverty reduction targets would need to take effect in April 2004 and ought to be in Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-budget report this week.

The IFS said its proposal would cost 1bn and would benefit the poorest 3.5 million UK families with children. But it warned that any increases to means-tested benefits and tax credits aimed at meeting the poverty reduction targets would need to take effect in April 2004 and ought to be in Chancellor Gordon Brown's pre-budget report this week.

The Government currently measures poverty by the number of children in households with less than 60 per cent of the median income after housing costs. Recent statistics show that 3.8 million - or 30 per cent - of children in the UK were living in poverty in 2001-02. However, the Government is due to announce a new measure of poverty by the end of the year.

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