The incidence of child poverty has always been a concern of this Government and successive budget measures, along with targeted policy initiatives, have sought to ensure that our children are protected and are given the opportunities to break an inter-generational cycle of poverty.
Child income support policy plays a major role in reducing and preventing child poverty and there is widespread agreement – the Combat Poverty Agency included – that child benefit is an effective mechanism in tackling poverty as it channels resources directly to families and is of particular importance to families on low incomes.
In the recent budget, child benefit was increased by £3 per month for each of the first two children and by £4 per month for the third and all subsequent children. Some 513,000 families with a total of 1.2 million children will benefit from these increases. The full year cost of these increases is £40.76 million.
Family income supplement – or FIS – is designed to provide income support for low wage employees with children. The payment is also available to single parents. The 1998 budget provided for the calculation of FIS on a net income rather than a gross income basis which significantly increased the supplements payable under the scheme. In addition, from June 1999, the weekly income thresholds for FIS will be increased by £8 which will result in a gain of £4.80 per week for many of the 13,000 families on FIS.
Research has shown repeatedly that unemployment is a key factor in producing poor households, and this is, of course, also true for households containing children. Unemployment has fallen substantially in recent years, estimated at 7.7 per cent on average for 1998, demonstrating the significant progress already made towards the National Anti-Poverty Strategy's target rate of 6 per cent by 2007.