Institute of Fiscal Studies: government will miss child poverty targets

James Browne, one of the authors of the IFS report into child poverty comments on its findings.

"The previous government significantly increased spending on benefits and tax credits for families with children, and child poverty fell by nearly a quarter between 1998 and 2009, but this was still not enough for the government to hit its child poverty targets.

"The Child Poverty Act imposes even more stringent targets in a much more constrained fiscal environment. Even if there were an immense increase in the resources made available, it is hard to see how child poverty could fall by enough to hit this supposedly legally binding target in just nine years."