Dick Spring
Ceist:75 Mr. Spring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the Government's plans on the elimination of child poverty; and his estimate of a necessary basic income for children. [5741/01]
Written Answers. - Anti-Poverty Strategy.
Child poverty has been identified as a central issue for consideration in the review of the national anti-poverty strategy provided for in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness. As part of the review, existing NAPS targets will be revised as appropriate and consideration will be given to possible new targets under the themes of child poverty, women's poverty, older people, health, and housing-accommodation.
The most recent independent survey carried out by the Economic and Social Research Institute shows that the level of consistent poverty among children has dropped to 12% – a fall of almost 30 per cent in the twelve month period from 1997 to 1998. This accelerates the downward trend in child poverty figures with consistent poverty among children halved from 24.8% in 1987 to 12% in 1998.
The drop in consistent poverty among children is largely attributable to this Government's suc cess in reducing unemployment to under 4% through the development of work friendly policies and the provision of supports which facilitate the transition from unemployment to employment.
In the area of child income supports, the massive injection of funds into the child benefit scheme provided for in the 2001 budget underlines the Government's commitment in this area. At a full-year cost of almost £329 million, the budget provides for unprecedented increases of £25 per month for the first two children and £30 per month for third and subsequent children. In addition, the increases will be paid three months earlier – from next June. I look forward to fully meeting the commitment we gave in the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness by further increasing child benefit, with a priority focus towards £100 per month for the third and subsequent children.
More generally, the Deputy will be aware that the social welfare benchmarking and indexation working group – established under the terms of the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness – is examining the issues involved in developing a benchmark for adequacy of adult and child social welfare payments including the implications of adopting a specific approach to the ongoing uprating or indexation of payments. An interim report is due from this group in April this year, with a final report due later in the year. The group's findings will inform the future development of policy in this critical area.