Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government's policy on child poverty.

Tackling child poverty and disadvantage is a priority for this government. The best route out of poverty is through work and this government has made substantial progress: the number of children in workless households has reduced by 590,000 since 2010. New analysis carried out by my Department shows that children living in families where no one works are significantly more disadvantaged, and achieve poorer outcomes than other children including those living in lower-income working families. This is why Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, focuses on tackling the complex barriers faced by many disadvantaged families and provides a framework for a continuing focus on improving their children’s outcomes, now and in the future.