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Figure 2.10 presents a breakdown of the distributional impact of the reforms announced in the 2013 Budget and the lead-up to the Budget by family type, along the lines of (and presented to the same scale as) Figure 2.2. Figure 2.10. Impacts of tax, benefit and tax credit measures announced in, and just prior to, Budget 2013 by family type Figure 2.10 shows that the impact of Budget 2013 (and the announcements leading up to it) is dominated by the uprating changes to benefits/tax credits/Universal Credit, which have a larger average negative impact on families with children than those without, and the largest on lone parents. Other changes have a negligible impact. Office of the Children’s Commissioner: Child Rights Impact Assessment of Budget Decisions June 2013 36
2.7 Conclusion: The impact of tax, tax credit and welfare changes on children’s rights This section has looked at the likely impact of tax, tax credit and welfare benefit reforms between 2010 – 2015 on levels of child poverty, and has analysed the distributional impact of reforms between families with and without children, families with different levels of income, families with different ethnic backgrounds, and families where there are disabled children 44 . The introduction (section 1) set out two questions, “What impact have budget measures had on children’s rights?”, and “Has the UK government devoted ‘the maximum extent of available resources’ to ensure children’s rights are realised?”. The UNCRC does not provide a specific benchmark for a standard of living adequate for the child’s development. However, the analysis shows that as a consequence of tax-benefit reforms, there is a substantial predicted increase in the number of children living in income poverty, and children living below a ‘minimum income standard’. This is a strong indication that there is likely to have been retrogression in relation to children’s Article 27 right to an adequate standard of living as a result of Government measures. Of course, these are predicted changes and much depends on levels of economic growth and how far children at the lower end of the income distribution benefit from any growth. In 2008, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended that the UK “Adopt and adequately implement the legislation aimed at achieving the target of ending child poverty by 2020, including by establishing measurable indicators for their achievement; Give priority in this legislation and in the follow-up actions to those children and their families in most need of support” 45 Recently published survey data shows no change between 2010/11 and 2011/12 in the number of children living below the (relative) poverty line – largely as a result of a decline in the median wage - but a two percent increase in absolute poverty 46 . This data indicates that there has been no progressive realisation in children’s right to an adequate standard of living since 2010. UNCRC requires that children – and particularly disadvantaged children – are protected from the adverse effects of economic downturns. Our analysis provides no evidence that children have been protected in practice. The analysis of tax- 44 We have focused on the overall impact of tax-benefit reforms, with a particular focus on their impact on family incomes. However, the way the reforms have been put into practice may well have consequences for children’s rights. For example, see section 3 of the background paper for issues around the design of Universal Credit – including the potential impact of making payments to a single adult in the family, and of ceasing to pay housing benefit direct to landlords. 45 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Concluding Observations on the UK, 2008 46 Households Below Average Income (HBAI), Department for Work and Pensions, Statistical release, June 13 th 2013 Office of the Children’s Commissioner: Child Rights Impact Assessment of Budget Decisions June 2013 37
Page 1 and 2: Office of the Children’s Commissi
Page 3 and 4: Contents Executive Summary 5 1 Intr
Page 5 and 6: Executive Summary Introduction This
Page 7 and 8: When spending was examined against
Page 9 and 10: 1. Introduction 1.1 The Office of t
Page 11 and 12: 1.3 The ‘maximum extent of their
Page 13 and 14: 1.5 Children’s budgets and impact
Page 15 and 16: 1.7 Methodology This assessment is
Page 17 and 18: 2.3 Poverty and rights: what childr
Page 19 and 20: 2.4.2 Impact of tax, tax credit and
Page 21 and 22: 2.4.4 The impact of tax, tax credit
Page 23 and 24: Taken together, these requirements
Page 25 and 26: income, lone parents lose the most,
Page 27 and 28: Figure 2.2 shows the same results a
Page 29 and 30: These outweigh the impact of the re
Page 35: 2.6 The impact of tax and benefit c
Page 39 and 40: 3. The impact of public spending de
Page 41 and 42: 3.3 Public spending and services: w
Page 43 and 44: 3.4 Methodology The results in this
Page 45 and 46: 3.6 The distributional impact of pu
Page 47 and 48: Table 3.2 shows (for working age fa
Page 49 and 50: Figure 3.4. Impacts of spending cut
Page 51 and 52: 3.6.3 Impact of cuts by number of c
Page 53 and 54: 3.6.4 Impact of cuts by ethnicity o
Page 55 and 56: A survey by the Association of Dire
Page 57 and 58: despite the fact that families with
Page 59 and 60: 4. Changes to childcare and early y
Page 61 and 62: Figure 4.1. Numbers of Families gai
Page 63 and 64: Figure 5.2 shows that the impact of
Page 65: For more information Frances Winter

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