The next generation

The front page of today's "Daily Telegraph" has some shocking statistics.

Nationally about one in every five children lives in a household which is entirely dependent on state welfare benefits. This involves 2.2 million children.

This is an average figure, of course, and varies from something like 5% in Buckingham to 49.2% in Central Manchester. In places like Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow and London approaching half of all children are living in such a household. Ours is the highest proportion in Europe.

One slight potential advantage could be that the children could be more likely to have a parent or parents at home. Having said that they are confronted with role models, who are unemployable by natural gift or inclination. Government research indicates that such children are likely in their turn to become benefit dependent adults.

This has to be seen as a failure of New Labour policy, and a contradiction that they have fulfilled their manifesto pledge to abolish child poverty.

It has to be said that these figures relate to household which are work-less and therefore entirely dependent on benefit. There are in addition many other households where low incomes from working are supplemented by tax credit benefits.

"Household" includes many single parent families, where the parent might want to work, but where income would be less than benefit, once things like child-care are paid for. (It should be remembered that income tax kicks in at a annual income little more than half of that on the minimum wage, and is more severe since the chancellor abolished the 10% band.)

This is becoming a long term and intractable problem. A start could be made by encouraging the able bodied back into work. This would involve provision for childcare help for single carers, to enable them to work full-time. It might also entail training for parents, even training in the "Three Rs", where language and numeracy improvement is required.

It also tends to support the Conservative proposals, based on American experience, to time-limit benefits and to put pressure on them to seek work. The Prime Minister boasts of how many jobs he has created, without admitting that a very high proportion have gone to foreigners and migrants. It is time that he did something to encourage native people.