UK 2020 child poverty goals unattainable: Report

A report has revealed that the UK government will fail to meet its child poverty goals for 2020.

The report conducted by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission and published on Monday showed that 21 percent of British children will be living in absolute poverty in six years from now.

Absolute poverty is defined as the deprivation of basic human needs, including food, clothing, shelter and health care.

In addition, the report revealed that another 20 percent of British children will be living in relative poverty, i.e. living in households on below 60-percent median income.

The figures are far above the British government goals of getting absolute child poverty to below five percent and relative child poverty to under 10 percent by 2020.

The panel also criticized Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s plans to address child poverty by getting more parents into work.

The Commission said “ending poverty mainly through the labor market does not look remotely realistic by 2020,” adding it would simply move children from low-income workless households to low-income working households.

“The reality is that too many parents get stuck in working poverty, unable to command sufficient earnings to escape low income and cycling in and out of insecure, short-term and low-paid employment with limited prospects,” the Commission said.

Furthermore, the panel stated that even if parental employment reached almost 100 percent, the absolute poverty target would be unreachable.