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Government loses major House of Lords vote to redefine child poverty Government loses major House of Lords vote to redefine child poverty
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The Government has suffered a major defeat in the House of Lords over changing the way it measures child poverty.  The Government has suffered a major defeat in the House of Lords over its plans to change the way that child poverty is measured. 
Peers voted 290 to 198 to approved an amendment to the Welfare Reform bill which blocks Conservative plans to abolish income-related child poverty targets.  Peers voted 290 to 192 in favour of an amendment to that will force the Government to publish annual figures on income-related child poverty. 
This means the Government will have to continue publishing annual data on child poverty measured with reference to average household income. Ministers had wanted to scrap income-related measures and replace them with other indicators, including the numbers of children living in workless households. 
Addressing the House, the Rt Reverend Paul Butler said the income situation needed to be recorded so it could be assessed alongside other measures of deprivation.  The plans were opposed by child poverty charities, and have been challenged by the respected social mobility commission, chaired by former Labour minister Alan Milburn, which said last month that it was “not credible” to tackle child poverty without acknowledging “the most obvious symptom of poverty, lack of money”.
Currently, child poverty is measured in comparison to average household income but the government believes the foucs on income diverts attention away from the root causes of poverty.  The Government’s reforms to the 2010 Child Poverty Act, which is to be renamed the Life Chances Act, passed in the House of Commons, but have now been derailed in the Lords, where the Government does not have a majority. 
It proposes to measure the rate based on a child's "life chances" which will take into account such factors as the proportion of children living in workless households.  Alison Garnham, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, said that the Government was in “a mess” over the issue.
The bill is designed to abolish the existing act 2010 Child Poverty Act brought in by the previous Labour government which focuses on income-related child poverty targets.  “It’s needed the House of Lords to act and insist that, yes, the government should continue to report to parliament on what’s happening to child poverty and, yes, that when you talk about poverty and life chances, you cannot simply ignore income,” she said. “The Lords is on the side of the experts and the public here.
The charity campaigning against the change, the Child Poverty Action Group, welcomed the Lords' intervention.  “MPs now have a chance to demonstrate their commitment to tackling child poverty by holding on to the Lords amendment when the Bill comes back to them.”
Chief executive Alison Garnham said: "Today’s vote by the House of Lords shows how much of a mess the Government has got itself into on poverty.   Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith said it was “shameful” to attempt to remove income as a measure of child poverty.
"It’s needed the House of Lords to act and insist that, yes, the Government should continue to report to parliament on what’s happening to child poverty and, yes, that when you talk about poverty and life chances, you cannot simply ignore income. The Lords is on the side of the experts and the public here.  "It should be a national mission to ensure every child has a decent start in life and measuring relative wealth and narrowing the gap in incomes must be central to that task,” he said. 
"MPs now have a chance to demonstrate their commitment to tackling child poverty by holding on to the Lords amendment when the Bill comes back to them." 
The Government's debate comes after a report from Parliament's social mobility and child poverty commission attacking the proposals was published last month.
The committee - led by former Labour cabinet minister Alan Milburn - was in favour of introducing "life chances" measures but believed the income-related measure remained essential. 
Additional reporting by PA