Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment her Department has made of trends in the level of child poverty.

National statistics on the number of children in relative and absolute low income are set out in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/789816/hbai-2017-2018-tables-ods-files.zip

In the latest low income statistics, the number of children in low income increased in three of the four measures.

Since 2009/2010 there has been a 1 percentage point reduction in child poverty on an absolute before housing cost (BHC) basis.

The evidence shows that work is the best route out of poverty and there are 730,000 fewer children in workless households compared with 2010.