PM’s spokeswoman says decision to abolish unit does not signal a reduction in government’s commitment to tackling poverty

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Downing Street has said its decision to abolish the civil service’s once high-profile child poverty unit does not mean it no longer takes the issue seriously, as opposition parties argued that the move signalled the end of compassionate conservatism.

Asked about the closure, Theresa May’s spokeswoman said the government remained committed to tackling poverty and would publish a paper on social justice in the new year.



“Just because the child poverty unit in its previous guise doesn’t exist, that doesn’t mean that it’s the end of the government commitment to the work it is doing,” he said.

The child poverty unit, set up under the last Labour government, has been subsumed into the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) after seeing its staffing halved in three years.

The news prompted alarm from charities dealing with childhood poverty, who said the unit had a unique role as it spanned three departments – the Treasury and Department for Education, as well as the DWP.

May’s spokeswoman said rising employment rates were taking children out of poverty. “The work goes on across government and it is important the government does all it can to get people into work, including in areas like the ‘national living wage’,” she said.

“What’s important is that the work is done, and keeps being done. It is not a reduction in the government’s commitment to tackling poverty.”

The decision to close the unit emerged in response to questions to the DWP from the Labour MP Dan Jarvis, who said the move ran counter to May’s stated intention upon entering Downing Street to tackle social injustice.

Jarvis was to lead a Commons debate on childhood poverty later on Tuesday.



Debbie Abrahams, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said she was appalled by the closure. “While the last Labour government halved child poverty, the Tories have dropped the issue completely,” she said.

“They’ve scrapped targets for its reduction and are now abolishing their entire child poverty team. This goes to show that despite her warm words, Theresa May has no plans to address the shameful levels of child poverty brought about by this government.”



Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader, said the closure of the unit marked “the obituary notice for compassionate conservatism”.

He said: “It’s the death knell for any idea that this divisive and reckless Brexit Tory government might ever be the party for working people.”

Jonathan Bartley, co-leader of the Greens, said the decision showed how the government was “systematically abandoning poor children”.

He said: “Absolute child poverty has risen by half a million since 2010. Getting rid of the unit is yet another misguided, self-defeating move that shows Theresa May’s claim she is building ‘a country that works for everyone’ to be a lie.”

The unit was set up as part of the Labour government’s much-touted drive to eliminate childhood poverty within two decades. That target was dropped this year amid a restructuring of goals around a wider measure of life chances, also taking in issues such as debt and addiction.

The unit had 23 full-time-equivalent staff members in 2013, falling to 10.5 in 2015-16, an earlier ministerial statement had revealed. All the work of the unit has now been transferred to the DWP, according to junior minister Damian Hinds, who responded to Jarvis’s question.



Child poverty had also been dealt with by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, but the child poverty aspect of its remit was removed earlier this year when it was renamed the Social Mobility Commission.



The commission has fewer civil service staff than it does commissioners, according to an answer to another parliamentary question from Jarvis. According to the DfE, it is limited to seven staff but has eight commissioners.

It has also emerged that the DWP is to permanently abandon its much-delayed life chances strategy, one of David Cameron’s stated flagship policies for his planned last term as prime minister, which was originally scheduled to be launched in June.

It was reported last month that this was being dropped in favour of a wider scheme on social justice, intended to focus not just on the very poor but also May’s favoured demographic of the “just about managing” households.

In response to another question from Jarvis, who has introduced a private member’s bill to put in place a new target for reducing childhood poverty, the DWP confirmed that the life chances strategy was being replaced by a green paper on social justice in the new year.