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Child poverty pledge 'significantly off track'

With 3.7 million children still living in poverty, Megan Jarvie warns ministers who might be tempted to welcome the latest figures showing that child poverty has not risen in the past year

The government has released the latest official poverty statistics (for 2013/14). Anyone aware of the projections made by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the National Policy Institute think-tanks may be feeling slightly confused that, essentially, child poverty rates haven't shifted on the previous year (although half a million more children are in absolute poverty than in 2010).

So, what do and what don't the figures tell us? The government is saying the big story is that “the percentage of individuals and children in relative low income is at its lowest level since the 1980s".

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