This morning on the Today Programme, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith blamed the deficit on “chasing” child poverty targets.
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This morning on the Today Programme, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith blamed the deficit on “chasing” child poverty targets.
Not for IDS recklessness on behalf of bankers and the banks or the global financial crisis, no, the reason “we got into such a problem over debt and the deficit” is because too much was done to reduce child poverty.
Here’s what he said (audio, 07.41-08.30):
“The key point today is that these child poverty figures, missing their targets, it’s not just a case of missing their targets, John, you know we wonder why we got into such a problem over debt and the deficit, and it’s because actually in chasing the target, to able, it got more and more difficult and more and more money had to be spent, and my problem is it’s not that, as you say, you know redistributing income is right, it is right, we have to do some of that, but we need to make sure when we do, that what we’re doing, has a change to someone’s life, not just leaving them as they are with more money, but actually getting them to the state so that they actually moves through to a process where they take control of their live, and that’s fair to them, and then that becomes fair to taxpayers, who accept that what they’re paying their taxes for is reasonable because they see something changing in the environment of those who are unemployed and in poverty.”
• Government has “no hope” of reaching its target on reducing child poverty 13 Jun 2012
• UK success on child poverty threatened by austerity programme 29 May 2012
• The charts that shame the “we’re all in this together” coalition 16 Mar 2012
• The right’s attack on child poverty targets shows their ignorance 15 Dec 2011
• The coalition is actively increasing child poverty 11 Oct 2011
The Child Poverty Action Group’s “Ending child poverty by 2020: Progress made and lessons learned” report (pdf) shows there was a reduction in child poverty over the past decade-and-a-half – and the projected increase as a result of the coaltion’s policies.
Figure 1:
And below is the UK deficit over the same time period.
Graph 2:
The deficit spike in 2008 had nothing to do with child poverty; the fact IDS blames the target for the deficit tells you everything about the mindset of him and the coalition.
19 Responses to “IDS blames deficit on child poverty target”
Derek Robinson
He is unhinged !
Skeptic
What a disgraceful human being.
Lord Blagger
Deficit?
What about the debts?
Imagine taking everyone’s pensions contributions and spending them just like Robert Maxwell or Bernie Maddoff.
Ah yes – Labour policy.
neil mclaughlin
RT @leftfootfwd: IDS blames deficit on child poverty target http://t.co/FZvA4xmh
Ravi Subramanian
IDS blames deficit on child poverty target http://t.co/YSWXcU6B < he really did do this!