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Finance Bill

My hon. Friend makes an important point. We are continuing to make progress towards the 2010 target, and also towards the 2020 target, which we propose to legislate for and therefore embed in law, to support both the long-term commitment and the short-term measures. My hon. Friend will know that some measures announced in last year's Budget that have been implemented this year also increase significantly child tax credit and lift children out of poverty. This year, as well as a limited increase in child tax credit, the particularly important issue is to ensure that parents can get back to work as rapidly as possible. We know that the big increase in child poverty in the 1980s was strongly linked to parents losing their jobs, and often to people never getting a job in the first place and then becoming parents having become long-term unemployed. That played a major part in that very substantial increase in child poverty. For those reasons, it is right to invest to help parents get back into work. The impact of the current recession on child poverty is uncertain. As my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary has made clear, that makes it more difficult to make progress towards the 2010 target, but we are determined to continue to keep making progress and to work towards it even through these more difficult times.