Child poverty is not an intractable problem; policy has been key in both its expansion & is how we can tackle it.
Again, the last fifteen years may not have been the only cause of a social problem but have compounded it & in many cases have seen policy choices intended to make things worse for the vulnerable.
After the election we need to see a sea change in socio-political attitudes & actions... whether we will is another issue altogether!
🚸Worldwide, about 800 million children live below the #poverty line of US$3.20 a day, according to @unicef. In #Luxembourg, one in four #children live below the poverty line, which is defined at the EU level as 60% of the median income. It’s one of the highest in the #EU.
🎙️Listen to the new SciLux episode for an inspiring discussion on #childpoverty with our two guests: Prof. Olivier De Schutter & Dr Anne-Catherine Guio.
What is nor alluded to is that the Scottish government have worked to alleviate this in as much as they can. The branch party in Holyrood was generally supportive but the mother ship has no intention of removing the cap if Labour MPs are to be believed.
The UK's record on child poverty is dire (both in absolute terms of worsening & in comparison to other countries).
Looking at the difference depending on number of children in households (and the timing) suggests benefits changes & austerity have a lot to do with this failure.
Moreover, those effected by child poverty often feel the effects throughout their (working) lives... so once again, effectively the last 15 years have seen class war of poor children.
"The lack of discussion about child poverty from the National-led coalition government is concerning. This government is focused on getting people into work, but we know over half of the children in poverty are in households with at least two, sometimes three or four incomes."
Associate Professor #MikeOBrien, Child Poverty Action Group
‘So why no mention of the £25-a-week-per-child Scottish child payment that the Scottish government introduced to mitigate the dangerously low levels of welfare benefits mandated by the UK government?”
Maitliss says "they've just got to not be incompetent, or not be cruel, or not be divided." But #Labour are both incompetent and divided: their handling of the £28 Bn pledge demonstrates both those things; and they are cruel, their silence on #GazaGenocide, on #Refugees, on #ChildPoverty demonstrates that. So what ARE they for?
The News Agents: Why is Starmer running scared of his own policies?
"The fact that it’s universal is particularly smart. Means-testing makes people feel good — it rids them of the terror of money going to the undeserving. Means-tested programs are very often more complicated and thus often actually more expensive than universal programs because they require so much more administrative work."
It would also bolster certain #business tax credits — including deductions for R&D, interest expenses & investments in equipment — that were limited in an effort to cap the total costs of Trump’s 2017 tax cut law.
But in the #Senate … #Republicans can block the bill w/a #filibuster….
…The #ChildTaxCredit expansion would ensure that more of the poorest #families — who traditionally can’t claim the credit because they don’t owe any #IncomeTax — would qualify for at least some assistance. It would allow the lowest-income families to claim the credit for each #child; the current credit allows those at the lowest end of the #income spectrum only to receive payments for one child.
#Trump’s 2017 #tax#law doubled the existing #ChildTaxCredit from $1k to $2k per child. In 2021, #Biden’s #AmericanRescuePlan increased it to $3k for kids under 17, or $3,600 for kids under 6. That helped cut #ChildPoverty significantly. #Democrats sought to extend it, but most #GOP lawmakers — & Sen #JoeManchin III (D?) — opposed the move, & it expired at the end of 2021.
The #poverty rate for #children during the final month of expanded #ChildTaxCredit payments under #Biden’s #AmericanRescuePlan Act was 12.1%, the center reported. The month after it expired, the child poverty rate jumped to 17%. It stood at 17.8% in November, the last month for which data is available.
…Disputes among #HouseRepublicans on Tues threatened to derail the legislation.