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Child Poverty Bill

My Lords, the motivation behind the amendment is to ensure that we do not lose focus on the most poor in our society. I have already referred to the fact that, according to Save the Children and the IFS, the number of children in severe poverty was growing even before the 2004 turning point, as policy concentrated—or seemed to concentrate—on pushing those just under the 60 per cent line to just over it. I am sure that most voters would want the exact opposite to happen. They would want the very poorest children pushed up first, and the somewhat less poor pushed up once the first group had been looked after. By ensuring that the figures were published for each of the points below the median—40 per cent and 50 per cent as well the 60 per cent targeted—we could see how the Government were doing across the range. I am of course conscious that researchers have found the figures for those below 40 per cent highly unreliable. As we discussed on a previous amendment, a lot of confusion may be thrown up by the workings of the informal economy in this context. However, I argue that it is the job of the Government, if they are to take child poverty seriously, to come up with an approach that successfully identifies and prioritises the very poorest children. I beg to move.