The Government appears to have badly mistimed its April Fool’s Day press release after the publication of a report in which a Tory minister claims poverty has nothing to do with a lack of money.

Work and Pensions Secretary Damian Green has today launched a £30 million scheme to “help workless families break the cycle of disadvantage.”

But in the foreword to a paper about the scheme, Green writes:

“We recognise the need to understand the complex issues that some families face and to develop a new approach to tackling poverty and engrained disadvantage. “Because the root causes are not financial, our approach goes beyond the safety net our welfare system provides.”

His “new approach” to tackling poverty is to help the parents resolve conflicts between the parents of poor children.

Professor Jonathan Portes, who’s study of David Cameron’s ‘Troubled Families’ scheme showed it had “little impact”, generously called Green’s initiative “well intentioned.”

But he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

“The most incredible thing I found about the paper that the DWP published today is that you’ve got a 31 page paper on the multiple problems faced by children in workless households yet Damian Green’s foreword says despite all the evidence ‘the root causes are not financial.’ “And the paper doesn’t mention poverty. So there’s an elephant in the room…which is poverty. These families actually lack money.”

Portes also points out that the £30 million scheme pales into insignificance with the £2 billion worth of welfare cuts the Government is implementing this week.

Cuts which the Child Poverty Action Group warned yesterday will push another 200,000 children into poverty.

But not to worry, Green’s scheme will be there when the parents start arguing about how to feed the kids…