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c/o Council for Disabled Children
National Children's Bureau
8 Wakley Street
London EC1V 7QE
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Child poverty numbers rise - government needs stronger response
29 March 2007
The government has published its new child poverty strategy at the same time as announcing that 100,000 more children live in relative poverty than at the last count. As members of the End Child Poverty campaign, Every Disabled Child Matters is calling for significant investment in benefits and services to ensure the government meet its child poverty targets for families with disabled children.
Steve Broach, Every Disabled Child Matters campaign manager, commented:
'The government's new strategy has a single page - three paragraphs - on the needs of families with disabled children. While we welcome the fact that the strategy has recognised the extra costs and barriers to work which put families with disabled children at risk of poverty, we need to see much more detail on what the government is proposing to do to tackle these risks.
For instance, the strategy states that lone parents caring for disabled children will be provided with appropriate support. This is welcome - but now we need to see some flesh on these bones. Ministers have no chance of meeting their own targets unless they focus specific measures and resources on families with disabled children.'
EDCM is meeting with DWP Minister Anne McGuire MP shortly to discuss these issues further. A round table meeting with Ministers and officials will also be held next month.
Steve Broach concludes:
'We are glad that disabled children are now firmly on the child poverty agenda. We now need to see real measures put in place to make sure that every family with a disabled child can live a life free from poverty. These have to include more appropriate and affordable childcare, coupled with benefits that reflect the actual cost of bringing up a disabled child'
More from EDCM
News story: Budget to help end child poverty
News story: New research confirms link between disability and child poverty
