Children’s Commissioner gives evidence to MPs on “almost-Dickensian” poverty levels in England
The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel da Souza, will give evidence on the Government’s new Child Poverty Strategy to the Education and Work and Pensions Committees.
Meeting details
With one in three children in the UK currently living in poverty, the Education and Work and Pensions Committees are examining how the Government’s new Strategy, published in December, can help the Government to lift 550,000 children out of poverty.
The Government commissioned Dame Rachel’s office to research children and young people’s experience of poverty, with this research informing the development of the Strategy. Upon publication, Dame Rachel said children in England were facing “an almost-Dickensian level of poverty”.
MPs are likely to ask Dame Rachel whether the Strategy is ambitious or detailed enough to solve this crisis. They may also ask her for views on the lack of targets or milestones in the Strategy and the decision to move the Child Poverty Unit from the Cabinet Office to the Department for Work and Pensions.
Also giving evidence are child poverty campaigners from Child Poverty Action Group, Citizens Advice, Save the Children UK and the Institute for Public Policy Research, who all conducted engagement activities to feed in to the development of the Strategy.
MPs are likely to ask these witnesses for their views on what, if any, measures are missing from the Strategy and how ministers could build support across the political spectrum and with the public.