Over Half Of Brent's Children Living In Poverty - Teather
October 2, 2008 5:04 PM
Sarah Teather is speaking out for Brent children living in poverty
Brent's Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather has called for urgent action from the Government after new figures showed that over half of Brent's children live in poverty.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty calculated that an average of 53% of children across Brent are growing up in poverty. The coalition of more than 130 organisations, including Barnardo's, Unicef and the NSPCC, classes households as being in poverty if they are living on under £10 per person per day.
In 1999 Tony Blair promised that Labour would "eradicate child poverty within a generation". But the Government is on course to miss their 2010 target by a staggering 1.1million children.
The Liberal Democrats would tackle child poverty by focusing tax credits on the poorest families; increasing Child Benefit by around £5 for the first child making all families £250 a year better off, scrapping Council Tax and replacing it with a Local Income Tax; and cutting Income Tax to 16%.
Local Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East Sarah Teather said:
"These deeply upsetting figures make a mockery of Blair and Brown's promise to stamp out child poverty. It is to their shame that more than half of our children here in Brent are growing up in poverty.
"Instead of helping Brent's poorest families, Gordon Brown has penalised them. He has raised taxes for those on the lowest incomes, and the Labour Government is making it harder for the unemployed to return to work by axing the Kilburn Job Centre.
"It simply isn't fair that those struggling to get by have to contribute more of their income in tax than the very rich. We urgently need to cut taxes for those who are on lower incomes, and to make sure tax credits are reaching those most in need.
"This Labour Government has failed an entire generation of Brent's children. Ministers urgently need to get their act together before we condemn another generation of children in Brent to a life of poverty."
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