Growing up in a single-parent household could count as a form of ‘poverty’
By John Bingham, Telegraph:
Growing up in a single-parent household should be treated as a form of “poverty”, the think-tank founded by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has suggested.
Parents mired in personal debt or children achieving low scores in primary school tests are also among potential “life chance risks” which should be taken into account when assessing whether families should be classed as living in poverty, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
The call came amid debate over the Government’s new official definition of poverty, to replace the current measure which is based on household income but has become a key dividing line between left and right.
Ministers have been accused of failing a generation amid predictions that a million children could fall back below the poverty line by 2020 on the current measure, which counts households whose income is less than 60 per cent of the median as below the poverty line.
But Mr Duncan Smith has described it as meaningless, pointing out that large numbers of people were theoretically “lifted out” of poverty by recession – because other people’s incomes fell.
Under plans currently before Parliament, a new poverty measure will incorporate factors such as unemployment and GCSE results.
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