One in seven UK children live in poverty

Despite government efforts to improve the living conditions of poor children, the UK still has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the developed world, Unicef reported today.

Approximately one in seven children grow up in poverty in the UK, defined by Unicef as households with income below 50% of the national average. With 15.4% of British children falling into that category, the UK ranked seventh from bottom of a list of 24 industrialised nations studied by Unicef.

Children in the US and Mexico fared worst, with poverty rates of over 20%. Italy has the worst child poverty level in Europe, at 16.6%.

Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden had the lowest poverty levels, all below 5%.

Unicef said that, in the UK, the percentage of children in poverty was falling in response to government efforts to reach the children of poor families. However in 17 of the countries studied, childhood poverty was getting worse, with between 40 million and 50 million children growing up in poverty in the world's richest countries.

"No matter which of the commonly used measures is applied, the rate of poverty among children has increased over the last decade," a Unicef statement said.

In the UK, government campaigns have led to a 10% drop in child poverty,
and the UK is on course for hitting targets of cutting child poverty by 25% by 2004/2005, according to the Unicef report, Child Poverty in Rich Countries.

Anna Wright, Unicef's project coordinator for the report, said the government was turning around the UK's appalling history on child poverty by targeting benefits specifically at low income families. But she said the 25% of children the government is on target to raise out of poverty by this year will have been those living just below the poverty line. Reaching children stuck deeper in poverty will require increased government spending, she said.

"Government policy has had an impact and the UK is moving up the league table. But there needs to be higher benefits and more social spending and that's going to mean raising revenue through higher taxes," Ms Wright said.

The UK government has set itself the goal of halving child poverty by 2010, and eliminating it by 2020.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Work and Pensions said: "This report confirms that this government has succeeded in arresting and reversing the long-term trend of rising child poverty... However we acknowledge there is still much more to be done.

"The government's strategy for tackling child poverty recognises that poverty is about more than just low income. It involves ensuring work for those who can and support for those who cannot; supporting parents in their parenting role; and delivering high quality public services," she said.

The Unicef report found that Norway is the only country where child poverty can be described as "very low and continuing to fall".

Unicef noted that social trends, labour market conditions and government policies were the three key determinants of child poverty rates. Higher government spending on family and social benefits was clearly associated with lower child poverty rates, Unicef found.

"On average, government interventions are found to reduce by 40% the rates of child poverty that would be expected to result from market forces alone," the report said.

The report in particular contrasted government policy in France and the UK. Although the UK system favoured young children from low income families while the French benefit system favoured no particular age group, the child poverty rate in the UK was double that of France.

"This points to a central dilemma: highly targeted social expenditures focus limited government resources on those most in need, but may lead to beneficiaries having less incentive to move from welfare to work. Benefits universally provided, though apparently more expensive, can avoid this poverty trap," the report said.

With poverty rising across the majority of the countries studied, Unicef urged governments to set targets and timetables to maintain their focus. For most countries a realistic target would be 10%, or 5% for those where this has already been achieved, Unicef said.