Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the impact of parental employment on child poverty.

The Child Poverty Action Group estimates 38% of children in My Hon Friend’s constituency are now growing up in poverty

Increasing the employment rate for lone parents, and increasing the number of second earners in couples, is absolutely crucial to tackling this problem.

Our Get Britain Working plan, backed by £240m of additional investment, is reforming employment support and overhauling JobCentres to help more people get work and get on at work.

And increasing parental employment is a key focus of our Child Poverty Taskforce too.