Green Party work and pensions spokesperson Jonathan Bartley has described the government’s changes to the way it measures child poverty as “economically illiterate”.
Bartley said:
"Today's announcement is about covering up the government's failure of a whole generation. Absolute child poverty has risen by half a million since 2010. The situation will worsen with the government's welfare cap and ongoing cuts.
"Redefining poverty around 'being in work' is economically illiterate and not based in reality. A child poverty strategy which excludes income is not fit for purpose.
"Instead of moving the goalposts the government should listen to the UK's Children's Commissioners who today said in their report to the United Nations that child poverty was 'unacceptably high', and that the government's should protect them from its welfare cuts."