New Child Poverty Unit

29/10/2007. The work and pensions secretary, Peter Hain, will announce plans for the creation of a dedicated Child Poverty Unit at a conference organised by childrens charity Barnardos.

The unit will co-ordinate efforts across Whitehall and will be run by officials from the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Part of the new unit's strategy will be to get single parents back into work.

Since 1997, official figures show that 600,000 children have been lifted above the poverty line, but an additional one million need to be helped if the government is to meet its target of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it by 2020.