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c/o Council for Disabled Children
National Children's Bureau
8 Wakley Street
London EC1V 7QE
tel +44 (0)20 7843 6448
fax +44 (0)20 7843 6313
[email protected]
Lib Dems announce plans on poverty and inequality
The Every Disabled Child Matters campaign has welcomed proposals by the Liberal Democrats to tackle poverty and inequality.
The proposals, launched today (27th July), were announced by Shadow Ministers David Laws MP and Danny Alexander MP. They include:
- Increasing Child Benefit by around £5 per family per week, taking 150,000 children out of poverty.
- Introducing a ‘pupil premium’, with £1.5bn extra targeted at children from the poorest backgrounds.
Although the proposals aim to lift five million people out of poverty by 2020, they fall short of meeting the £4 billion investment which the End Child Poverty campaign is calling for in order to meet the 2010 target of halving child poverty in the UK.
Steve Broach, EDCM Campaign Manager, comments:
'This set of proposals has the potential to benefit disabled children and their families, particularly through a review of level of Carers Allowance and the extension of Winter Heating Allowance to some of our families. Other policies, such as the Pupil Premium and the single working age benefit, need to be tested to make sure that they take the particular needs of disabled children into account.'
'We also want the Liberal Democrats to go further, by recognising the additional costs of childcare for disabled children within the tax credit system. While we join End Child Poverty in applauding the Lib Dems commitment to the 2020 child poverty target, we need to see the party committed next to the investment needed to make those targets a reality.'
'We will look forward to discussing these proposals in more detail with Danny Alexander, David Laws and Lib Dem MPs such as Annette Brooke who have been key supporters of EDCM since our launch.'
More from EDCM
News story: Better off - In Work?
News story: End Child Poverty picnic in the park
