Friday 16 Nov 2012 @ 09:10
Think Tanks
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Statement from Julia Unwin on Child Poverty consultation

JRF has long argued that poverty is about more than income, and we welcome any meaningful attempt to gain a full understanding of life in poverty.

The Government have been wise to retain the income-based measures of the Child Poverty Act, and think about adding to them rather than scrapping them altogether. Relative income is not on its own a full picture of poverty – but nor is any set of measures that ignore income altogether. 

The potential measures the consultation suggests are generally sensible, and it is particularly good to see housing and education listed as areas for exploration. The hard decisions are yet to come though. Setting out themes for consultation is relatively easy: agreeing what should be measured, what is possible to measure, and what legal form it should take, is much more difficult - and the questions around measurement should never obscure the need for immediate action.

We will be playing a constructive part in this debate, and publish our response to the consultation in due course.

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