Deprivation/Child Poverty

I am pleased to hear that, but my conversations with people such as Debbie Scott from Tomorrow's People lead me to believe that there is further to go. The Government are complacent about the state of the labour market. There are more jobs than ever, but if this country has the highest number of workless households, there is much more to be done in this area if we are to tackle child poverty. We can go further, and we need to consider new methods—not from a particular political philosophy, but based on what will work. Much of what David Freud has said is good. Providers such as Tomorrow's People have been outstanding and their results speak for themselves. With regard to the labour market, which is key to dealing with these issues, I am informed by the Statistics Commission that, since 1997, between 53 and 81 per cent. of the new jobs that have been created in this country have gone to foreign nationals. In many cases, they have provided vital skills, but there are people of all races, colours and backgrounds in our welfare system—nearly 5 million people on a range of out-of-work benefits. Our first duty is to make sure that such people, of all races and nationalities, are not in the welfare system for years, but come into the labour market. Using work as a means of reducing child poverty is a primary focus, and I am concerned about the tripartite agreement in the child poverty unit. I understand that the lead Department for child poverty is the Treasury and that the unit is physically located in the Department for Children, Schools and Families, so the Minister is, in a sense, the junior partner of the three Departments, which is a great shame. Responsibility for child poverty should be firmly centred in the DWP, with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions being accountable for meeting targets. He would certainly need to co-operate with other Departments, as well as the Treasury and DCSF, such as the Department for Communities and Local Government. We have heard about the problems with child care and local authorities, on which I have much sympathy with the comments of the hon. Member for Leyton and Wanstead (Harry Cohen). I am not alone in worrying about the tripartite agreement. The Treasury Committee said in its report on the 2007 comprehensive spending review that"““we remain to be convinced that the division of departmental responsibilities will not accentuate the possible tension between the 2010-11 target and the final target to eradicate child poverty.””" We have heard excellent contributions on whether it pays to go back to work. I shall not repeat what has been said, but I should like to consider the issue from a slightly different perspective—marginal tax rates and the withdrawal of benefit income as people go into work. I think that we all agree that with a progressive form of taxation, the best-off should pay the most tax, but we have a system in which the poorest pay some of the highest rates of tax or have benefit income withdrawn. Let me give some figures. Income support and jobseeker's allowance are withdrawn at 100 per cent., housing benefit and council tax at 85 per cent. and working tax credit at up to about 70 per cent. in many cases. In its ““Benefits Simplification”” report, the Work and Pensions Committee said that if 41 per cent."““is the highest tax rate that it is right to expect a high-income earner to pay, how much worse it is that the government effectively charges low income earners more than twice that rate.””" I agree. I also agree with earlier remarks on this issue.