Ivan Lewis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ivan Lewis on 2016-02-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to reduce the prevalence of child poverty in the Greater Manchester area.

Priti Patel

The Government is committed to eliminating child poverty and improving life chances for all children, including those in Greater Manchester.

We know that work is the best route out of poverty and we are already making progress, with the number of children in workless households across Greater Manchester down by 13,000 since 2010. Our investment in childcare, the National Living Wage and increases to the Personal Allowance will help people increase their hours, increase their earnings, and enable them to keep more of what they earn.

The Secretary of State will say more about the Government’s plan to tackle disadvantage and extend opportunity in a new Life Chances Strategy. This will be published in the Spring.