A report launched last Wednesday by the London Child Poverty Commission, which Karen has been a member of, suggests ways to take more children out of poverty before the 2012 Olympics.

It shows that a combination of national and London-specific policy changes, coupled with improvements to employment, benefits and tax credits, could reduce child poverty in the capital to 24 per cent by 2010/11, lifting 278,000 children out of poverty. Without major policy changes, London will continue to have a child poverty rate of 39 per cent.

Carey Oppenheim, Chair of the London Poverty Commission said: “We have real potential to reduce the very high rates of child poverty in London – but it will require action on three fronts: radical improvements in employment for parents on low incomes, rises in national benefits such as child benefit and child tax credit as well as specific measures which improve the incentives for Londoners to take and hold on to jobs. In combination, these could make a lasting impact on the scale of child poverty in the capital in time for the Olympics.”

The report was commissioned to estimate future levels of child poverty in London and what measures would be required to halve child poverty in London from its 1998 level.

More specifically, it models what impact different benefit, tax credit and employment measures would have, and what would be required at both a local and national level to achieve the targets.

For example, if employment rates in 2010/11 for parents in London were the same as in the country as a whole, (an extra 138,600 jobs), child poverty in London would be reduced by 5.1 per cent (87,000 children). The impact would be even greater if increases in employment were tightly focused on low-income families without jobs.

The report also shows that a national package, which increases child benefit for larger families and child tax credit, would reduce child poverty by 9.2 per cent. Due to the capital’s high proportion of larger families, this would have more impact in London than nationwide.

Suggested London-specific measures include a rise in working tax credit and an extension of housing benefit eligibility for families in low paid work, costing an extra £690 million, and bringing child poverty down a further 2.5 per cent.

Karen Buck MP and London Child Poverty Commissioner added: “The Government set an ambitious but crucial target of eliminating child poverty by 2020.  We have taken large strides forward over the past ten years with 700,000 children lifted out of relative poverty, but we must continue to move forward.  While London is seen as affluent, there are pockets of poverty across the city.

“I was delighted that the Mayor and London Councils have taken this challenge fully on board by setting up the commission.  Its work is ensuring we can lift all children out of poverty across London.”

Department for Work and Pensions Minister, Jim Murphy commented: “Ensuring that people who live in the capital are able to take advantage of the opportunities for work is essential if we are to reduce poverty rates.

“We have already introduced the Cities Strategy that we believe will be key to tackling the pockets of worklessness that still exist within the city. Thanks to programmes like the New Deal for Lone Parents we are bringing more lone parents into work than ever before, but we know there is more to do if we are to lift employment rates in the city up to the national average.

“There has been improvements in London but we must go further. There are challenges ahead of us that we are looking to address and our refreshed child poverty strategy to be published soon will underpin our commitment to reaching that 2020 target which will benefit the children and families of the capital.”

Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone adds, “I welcome this research which comprehensively explores the prospects of child poverty in London and gives a thorough analysis of what actions would lead to better lives for disadvantaged children. It is crucial that we look towards the London 2012 Games as an opportunity of making a real difference for this and future generations of children in the capital.”

Merrick Cockell, Chairman London Councils said, “Local government plays a crucial role in tackling the causes of child poverty through delivering employment services, childcare and services to improve the take-up of benefit and tax credit entitlements. If the Government takes the necessary measures to make work pay, London boroughs will be essential to helping parents into work and improving outcomes for their children.”

Supporting the launch of this research, the Commission is releasing a paper called ‘Children dependent on benefits by London Parliamentary Constituencies’ that shows the numbers of children dependent on benefits in each constituency.

Overall in London there was progress in reducing the number of children in benefit dependent families between 1998 and 2002, but since then the numbers have begun to rise again. The data shows a wide variation between constituencies, with the percentage of children dependent on benefits ranging from 63 per cent of children in Canning Town and Poplar to ten per cent in Twickenham.

For more information contact London Child Poverty Commission Secretariat on info@londonchildpoverty.org.uk or 020 7934 9837 or visit www.londonchildpoverty.org.uk