Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of implementing the Child Poverty Strategy over the next ten years.

The Child Poverty Strategy represents a long-term, cross-government approach to tackling the root causes of child poverty. The strategy’s successful implementation depends on co-ordinated action across a range of services. It sets out both the immediate action the Government is taking to support families and the longer-term action needed to address the structural drivers of poverty. It includes focus on boosting families' incomes through employment and the social security system, driving down the cost of essentials, and strengthening local support to ensure families can access vital services when they need them.

The commitments in the strategy will lead to the largest expected reduction in child poverty over a Parliament since comparable records began. This includes the removal of the two child limit which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, rising to around 550,000 alongside other measures set out in our strategy, such as the expansion of Free School Meals.