Job done? Can welfare reform and social mobility end child poverty? Ruth Lister Emeritus Professor of Social Policy Loughborough University & member of the House of Lords.

Outline  The child poverty strategy  ‘Welfare’ reform  Social mobility

Child poverty strategy  Lessons to be drawn from the progress made so far.  Broad consensus around multi-faceted strategy.  Disagreement around symptoms & causes.  Impact of wider public spending cuts – failing the new ‘family test’.

‘Welfare’ reform  Projected reduction in child poverty as a result of universal credit outweighed by impact of other cuts.  Question mark over achievement of goals of simplification, reducing ‘welfare dependency’ & making work pay.  Localisation agenda:  Negative impact of devolution of responsibility for council tax benefit & part of social fund, as well as cuts;  Continued importance of local authorities’ role.

Social mobility  Government’s life-cycle approach  The philosophical & evidence-based case against making social mobility the ‘primary goal’ of social policy.  Greater equality as the goal.