Child Poverty

Save The Children has used a new measure -- that combines household incomes with adult and child deprivation -- to find that 10.2 percent of children -- or 1.3 million -- are living in "severe poverty." Predictably, a spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions is rolled out to say that hundreds of thousands of children have been raised out of poverty since 1997, ignoring the stickiness of "real" unemployment, especially in the 2nd half of Blair's time in government.

84 percent of families in severe poverty cannot make regular savings of 10 pounds or more a month. Three-quarters cannot afford to replace worn out furniture. Official data in March showed that child poverty had returned to the rising trend Labour inherited and that poverty across the population as a whole had risen for the first time since Labour won office in 1997.