Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they have learned from measures to tackle the root causes of poverty taken by the devolved administrations, social enterprises, non-governmental organisations, charities and other organisations.

Officials in DWP continue to engage with external organisations and with devolved administrations on a wide range of welfare issues, including constructive discussions about approaches to tackling poverty. The Government is very clear that work is the best route out of poverty and our welfare reforms are designed to incentivise employment and support people to progress in work.

In April this year we published Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families which sets out a framework to improve outcomes for workless families, now and in the future. Central to this approach is effective joint working between Jobcentre Plus and local partners, including third sector organisations, which specialise in supporting people with multiple and complex needs, to ensure coordination of support and sharing of expertise at a local level. Children in workless families are significantly more disadvantaged, and achieve poorer educational and employment outcomes than other children, including those in lower-income working families. That is why we will continue with policies that support and encourage employment - reforming the welfare system to make work pay. And these policies are working: since 2010, there are 3 million more people in work, with 954,000 fewer workless households, and 608,000 fewer children in workless households across the UK. The UK unemployment rate has not been lower since 1975 and the proportion of workless households is at its lowest since records began.