Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in what ways the proposed life chances measures in the amendments to the Child Poverty Act 2010 will measure child poverty in households with at least one employed adult.

We are clear that the existing low-income measures do not drive the right action to tackle the root causes of child poverty.

Our proposals in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill introduce new statutory measures of worklessness and educational attainment which the evidence indicates are the biggest factors affecting child poverty now and in the future.

The Department will also continue to publish low-income statistics as part of the ‘Households Below Average Income’ publication.