More to be done, but dramatically good news for children living in poverty

“There are 3.8 million children living in poverty in the UK – in the fourth or fifth richest economy in the world. This poverty is real, making daily life a struggle for these families and the longer children are left in poverty, the more damaging its impact on them.

“But today the Chancellor boldly set out the Government’s intention to move toward the target of halving child poverty by 2010 with investments of nearly £1 billion per annum.

“The measures announced today 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.

“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.”