According to Alan Milburn, former health secretary and current social mobility adviser is warning government that they are far from reaching their 2020 target date for reducing child poverty levels. At the current moment it is estimated that at least 800,000 children in the UK are living below poverty levels. Milburn maintains that government has the wrong focus on reducing poverty in those under 6 and until the UK follows the example of Scandinavian countries, there is little hope for improvement.
The area of concern is where government is allocating their budget. At the moment the UK is spending approximately 3.5% of its income on benefits instead of services. Scandinavia, on the other hand, focuses on services rather than benefits with a much higher success rate. These comparisons show that they have better success in equality between genders, far lower levels of child poverty, higher employment rates and even better school enrollment of children under the age of six.
According to Milburn who was raised in a single parent home, the UK is not investing enough in child care which would make a significant improvement in getting parents back to work. Scandinavian countries invest 2% of their budget on child care whilst the UK only invests one-half of one percent. That’s one-quarter of the amount they should or could be investing. As well, Milburn states that with the current track the UK is on, not only will they fall short of the 2020 deadline but an additional 100,000 children will be added to those living below poverty lines.
In the end, the former health secretary believes that the UK will need to allocate from taxes at least £19 billion if they have any hope of meeting the deadline. The goal is to reduce child poverty levels to 10% but he feels this is not attainable on government’s current path and is calling for immediate changes to policy.
