The previous Labour Government had an explicit target for child poverty in 2010, and for 2020. In a project funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, a number of researchers at various institutions are working to forecast the prospects for child poverty in 2010 and 2020 under current government policies, and to estimate what a set of policies that allowed the government to meet the target might cost. Researchers at IFS will be using microsimulation techniques to forecast relative child poverty in the UK in 2010 and 2020 under various scenarios for future policy and sociodemographic change. This research is part of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's project, What will it take to end child poverty in the UK?.

This forecast was updated, in the light of newer economic and demographic forecasts, and published in time to inform Budget 2009.