Labour's cash for poor 'has not dented inequalities'

The government's reform of social security over the last five years has shifted income towards the poor although income inequalities are little changed, according to a new survey by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Its paper, Social Security Under New Labour: what the third way means for welfare reform, reveals that the poorest third of households will have benefited by£25 per week by 2003, with the richest 10 per cent losing£11 per week.The changes have helped reduce child poverty on the government's preferred measure by 500,000 between 1997 and 2001.Payments of means-tested benefits have also increased, by 33 per cent for eligible lone parents with two young children and by 31 per cent for low-income single pensioners under 75.

www. ifs. org. uk