Alleviating child poverty has become a cornerstone of recent government policy. In targeting child poverty, policymakers hope to improve not only child welfare, but also aim over the medium- to longer-term to reduce the incidence of many other of societys ills for example worklessness, crime, and poor health - which are thought to originate with childhood disadvantage. There is much evidence in the UK which would appear to back up this approach: strong statistical correlations have been found between childhood income and other indicators of childhood disadvantage, as well as many negative outcomes in later life. However, despite these statistical correlations, we do not know whether giving more income to low income families will succeed breaking the cycle of destructive life events which follow. This is because although much of the research from the UK hitherto uncovers statistical associations between outcomes, it is unable to pin down the underlying causal connections.

Funded by the HM-Treasurys Evidence Based Policy Fund, and co-funded by a range of other government departments (Department for Education and Skills, Department for Work and Pensions, Inland Revenue and Department for Culture, Media and Sport), a number of research projects are currently underway, aiming to employ appropriate statistical techniques to further our understanding of what circumstances in childhood contribute to poverty and negative outcomes in childhood and later in life. The research projects funded under the umbrella of this project are listed on the right.

Click here to access slides given at the Parental Background and Child Outcomes: How much does money matter and what else matters? seminar, 30th September 2005.