TUC submission to the Education and Work Pensions Select Committees inquiry on the child poverty strategy
The TUC welcomes the Labour Government’s 10-year Child Poverty Strategy and its efforts to address high child poverty levels. Measures such as ending the two-child limit, expanding free school meals are expected to significantly reduce child poverty.
The TUC brings together more than 5.3 million working people who belong to our 47 member unions. We support trade unions to grow and thrive, and we stand up for everyone who works for a living. Every day, we campaign for more and better jobs, and a more equal, more prosperous country.
The TUC appreciates the opportunity to submit evidence to the Education and Work and Pensions Select Committees' inquiry, which will consider how the government can ensure it delivers a successful child poverty strategy.
Our submission does not cover the full inquiry or assess every policy contained in the strategy, we focus in particular on policy seeking to address employment, social security, the cost of living and childcare provision.
Summary of TUC policy asks
Boosting Incomes
Our response emphasises breaking the cycle of stagnant GDP and falling real household incomes by targeting both rising GDP per head and real household disposable incomes.
Ensuring full and proper implementation of the Employment Rights Act and the Make Work Pay agenda. Vital detail of these policies will be delivered via secondary legislation and it is important for child poverty outcomes that this is as robust as possible.
The new rights to decent notice of shifts and compensation for cancelled shifts must be open to all workers on variable-hours contracts, not just those on the lowest hours or the lowest pay. The government must resist calls to limit the right to those with only small numbers of guaranteed hours and ensure that anyone with fewer than full-time hours guaranteed has a right to a contact that reflects their normal hours of work.
A commitment to further increase the bite of the full minimum wage in the years ahead, alongside ongoing action to abolish discriminatory youth rates.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 also delivers a major strengthening of trade union organising rights including by creating a new statutory framework for trade union workplace access and by significantly simplifying the statutory recognition process. Strengthening workers’ ability to organise and collectively bargain is one of the most effective ways to rebalance power, raise living standards, and support family stability. It is now vital that secondary legislation that underpins these new trade union access rights is robust.
The child poverty strategy should support skills development for in-work progression, recognising the impact of union-led learning, especially for disadvantaged groups.
Remove the overall benefit cap, without this some families will not feel the benefits of the removal of the two-child limit.
Broader improvements to the adequacy of social security, and reforms to universal credit, such as ending the five-week wait, reviewing assessment periods, and increasing work allowances. The universal credit legislation also needs to be amended so that Maternity Allowance is treated in the same way as a Statutory Maternity Pay in universal credit calculations.
Social security should better address housing costs; at a minimum restoring the Local Housing Allowance to 30th percentile. Abolishing the benefit cap would also help low-income renters.
Do not proceed with extensions of No Recourse to Public Funds provisions, and reconsider wider application of this approach.
Saving Families’ Money and Securing Finances
Free universal school meals for all children across state primary and secondary schools.
Substantially increase access to affordable and high-quality childcare. And establish a social partnership forum with unions, government, and employers to ensure fair pay and standards in the sector.
Energy bill support should be reformed with tiered rates and targeted VAT adjustments for essential usage. The government must also prepare for economic shocks as a result of global tensions affecting household bills.
Strengthening Local Support
A permanent crisis and resilience fund.
Target and Monitoring
Legally binding, independently evaluated targets with clear milestones.
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