Lifting 600,000 children out of poverty has been one of the proudest achievements for this Labour Government but it is measured against the tough challenge we have set; abolishing child poverty by 2020 and halving it by 2010.

To do that, Budget 2008 announces measures that will make significant further progress:

•    disregarding Child Benefit in calculating income for Housing and Council Tax Benefit from October 2009, improving work incentives for many of the lowest paid families and boosting their incomes. A working family with one child on the lowest incomes will gain up to £17 a week from this change;

•    increasing the first child rate of Child Benefit to £20 a week from April 2009, reinforcing Labour’s commitment to Child Benefit as the foundation of financial support for all families;

•    increasing the child element of the Child Tax Credit by £50 a year from April 2009 to further help low to middle income families;

•    on top of this Labour will invest over £125m over the next three years across the UK to draw on new ideas to tackle child poverty in the next decade.