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Child Poverty Bill

Whatever; all of those may come into play, but what it shows is that looking at income levels, even based on dietary standards, will not necessarily address the problem. It seems to me that it is actually a more profound problem about education and attitudes to well-being, and prioritising budget spending. It is very clear, affording to the IFS study, that on those existing lines of benefit levels and income over half of all children below the poverty line, or 60 per cent—and this is persistent poverty, not temporary or one-year but three-year poverty—are nonetheless not in severe hardship or suffering material deprivation. Therefore, that suggests that you have to go below those figures to ask, "What is going on here?". That may well be about education and spending, but it does not mean that by increasing the income—although I would obviously be happy to see that—we are necessarily addressing the problem as the noble Lord would hope.