Background
3.An account of the policy initiatives introduced to tackle child poverty can be found in Ending Child Poverty: Everybody’s Business (HMT, DWP, DCSF, 2008). In December 2003, the Government published Measuring Child Poverty (DWP, 2003) which set out a framework for measuring child poverty based on three measures: relative low income; absolute low income; and combined low income and material deprivation. The Government monitors child poverty against these three measures with a target attached to the relative low income measure of halving the number of children in poverty by the financial year 2010, and of seeking to eradicate child poverty by 2020 (Public Service Agreement 9). Public Service Agreements detail the aims and objectives of UK government departments for a three-year period. There is, however, no statutory basis for this target and until now there has been no statutory duty on the Government to make progress against any of the child poverty measures.
4.In January 2009, the Government published the consultation document Ending Child Poverty: Making It Happen (HMT, DWP, DCSF, 2009). A summary of the consultation responses has been published.
5.In the 2009 Pre-Budget Report, the Government announced that it would extend free school meals to primary school pupils in working families with an income of up to £16,190 in England from September 2010.