To Hull and back, a tale of poverty
Updated on 09 June 2008
Sue Turton reports from one Hull estate to find out whether people there really see themselves as poor.
In a damning report into the state of Britain's children the UK Children's Commissioners have savaged Britain's approach to children in the areas of youth justice, schools, stress and drugs.
But today's report to the UN singles out one of New Labour's key aims, child poverty. The report says it is "unacceptable" that "3.8 million children" are living in relative poverty, with as many as "1.3 million children" living in severe poverty
In 1997 Tony Blair committed to halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020.
To set their target they used a European Measure, those living in poverty are households where income is less than 60 per cent of median income. That comes in at around £18,000.
Initially Labour made good progress, but last year the number of children in poverty actually went up. And tomorrow the official figures are expected to confirm the government is falling further behind its target.
FactCheck: is poverty history?
Gordon Brown has used successive PMQs to make some dubious poverty boasts. On the eve of the latest figures, FactCheck assesses Labour's record.
Read more
This week Channel 4 News will be scrutinising why the United Kingdom still lags behind other countries; what can be done about it and perhaps fundamentally if the target is worthwhile.
In a society with widespread ownership of cars, mobile phones, Sky dishes, is poverty a useful term any more?
Tomorrow we will be focusing on the figures themselves, but tonight Channel 4 News has been finding out from the people who meet the statistical poverty profile whether they consider themselves poor.
We visited the Orchard Park estate in Hull, where 55 per cent of families are out of work and on benefits - that's double the national average.
