Ending child poverty ‘will cost billions’

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation estimates that an extra £2.4 billion a year will need to be spent on tax credits if the government is to meet its target of halving child poverty. JFR says that 2.3 million children will be in poverty in 2010, missing the 1.7 million target set in 1999. The JRF also says that there has been a sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty who have at least one parent in work, suggesting that the recession could push many further below the poverty line because of increased unemployment.