Child Poverty in Large Families

The abolition of child poverty is key to the UK government's social policy strategy. In 1999 the Prime Minister's Toynbee Hall speech promised 'to eradicate child poverty within a generation'. Child poverty is associated with poor child well-being and well- becoming. For a child to be poor just because they live in a large family is a particular injustice. This is already recognised to some extent in the tax and benefit system, which varies payments for families with different numbers of children. This study is based on secondary analysis of national and international data. The national data sets included the Family Resources Survey, the Millennium Cohort Study and the Families and Children Survey. The international data was drawn from the European Community Household Panel and the Luxembourg Income Study. The study also draws on national and international data on how the tax and benefit system impacts on model families.