If you look hard there was a little-noticed line in the Conservative party’s general election manifesto that said the government would 'work to eliminate child poverty' so the DWP report announced today that the number of children in poverty has gone up by 200,000 over the last year to 2.3 million could be a bit embarrassing.
With the £12 trillion of cuts still yet to come, expected to heavily hit in work benefits such as tax credits and housing benefit, the Conservatives have come up with a solution to the problem, they will change the way child poverty is measured.
David Cameron's official spokeswoman said the Prime Minister: "Remains committed to doing more work to eliminate child poverty and that is precisely why the government wants to look at having an approach that is focused more on tackling the root causes of poverty than treating the symptoms'.
The root being ignored is the low wages paid by employers which force people to receive top ups such as tax credits and help with rent but rather than increase the minimum wage and put the burden onto the employers, the Conservatives plan is to reduce the benefits that you have to be in work to receive.
Now the Government is looking to slash the tax credits available to employees and leave the taxpayers to subsidise the employers who makes billions in profits, we can expect to look back on the days when only 2.3 million children were in poverty as a golden time although with the government fudging the figures, we just won't know it.
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