'Government failing working parents'

The Government is failing families who are struggling with poverty despite holding down jobs, a leading think tank has said.

The Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) said the number of youngsters in poverty, despite having at least one working parent, has stayed the same since 1997 at 1.4 million.

It means the Government's much-vaunted progress in reducing child poverty has been almost exclusively to the benefit of families in which neither parent works.

Some 600,000 children have been raised above the official poverty line since Labour came to power.

But the Government is committed to helping all 2.8 million poor children out of poverty by 2020 - half of which have at least one parent with a job.

The IPPR has warned there is little incentive in the benefits system for a second parent to enter work and enable this "forgotten million" to increase their prosperity.

It suggests introducing of a personal tax credit allowance, so that second parents would be better off if they start a job.

Additionally, the working tax credit for couples with children should rise by a third to £91.31.

The IPPR says this would lift 200,000 children out of poverty at a cost of £1.6 billion, which could be paid for by taking child tax credit off 2 million better off families.

It also suggests increasing the effectiveness of the minimum wage by raising it in line with average earnings, enforcing it more stringently and extending the adult rate to 21-year-olds.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.