Iain Duncan Smith is speeding ahead with plans to redefine how child poverty is measured in Britain in response to a wave of criticism of his welfare reforms, which drew accusations from critics that he trying to "shift the goalposts".
A child is currently deemed to be living in poverty if part of a family that has less than 60% of median household income, but under new plans first mooted in 2012, the work and pensions secretary will take into account other factors like whether members of the family are in work or how many of them are drug addicts or alcoholics.
Labour's shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves said: “Changing the definition of poverty won’t do anything to help the children whose lives are being damaged by the rise in poverty we are seeing under this Government.”
Here are the seven sobering facts you need to know about the state of child poverty in Britain:
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Cameron branded poverty a "moral disgrace"
Back in 2006, David Cameron said he felt poverty was an "economic waste" and a "moral disgrace". So what have the coalition done to stamp it out? -
Child poverty will rise by 400,000 by 2020
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the coalition's reforms will increase absolute poverty by 400,000 in 2020. -
Most children in poverty are in working families
Two-thirds (66%) of children growing up in poverty live in a family where at least one member works, according to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) figures. -
Child poverty was meant to be under control by 2020
And now the government is on track to miss its legally binding target by a massive margin of 2 million. This was made legally binding by the Child Poverty Act passed by Labour in March 2010 which set a series of targets to be met by 2020 including the reduction of absolute poverty reduced to less than 5% and a reduction of relative poverty. -
How did Labour do?
Labour came to power in 1997 with just over a quarter of the UK's children - 3.4 million - living in poverty, according to the DWP. The figures went down to 2.7 million in the first two terms of Labour, jumping to 2.9 million in 2007/2008 as the banking crash hit, before slipping to 2.8 million the next year. They still had to admit to not hitting their 2010 targets on reducing child poverty. -
Child poverty is worse here than in Slovenia
In a Unicef study of children's material well-being, measuring how little money and essentials they have, the UK came below other advanced economies like France and Austria. -
Is austerity making it worse?
The IFS said that the UK's cuts programme would throw the falling child poverty rate "into reverse".
