Brown unveils poverty reduction drive

Gordon Brown is set to offer jobless families "benefits bonuses" for finding work, making their children behave or living more healthily.

 

In a speech to the Welsh Labour conference the prime minister was set to say the payments - based on a US scheme - would be handed to deprived parents for meeting a range of good citizenship targets.

 

Alongside extra cash for getting a job and re-training, people could be rewarded for ensuring children attend school and visit the dentist regularly.

 

They could also get windfalls for attending parents' evenings and helping out at schools.

 

Brown is arguing for an "opportunity revolution" to give poor families incentives to raise their standards of living.

 

"Think what we can achieve in our century if - instead of unlocking only some of the talent of some of the people - we are able for the first time to unlock all the talent of all our people, and do so not simply as an economic necessity, but as a moral imperative," he was to say.

 

"We're just halfway there to the opportunity revolution our country needs.

 

"An opportunity revolution to drive social mobility forward - which is the great mission of the next decade."

 

Brown will promise to build on family intervention projects, part of the respect programme that tries to get families involved in persistent anti-social behaviour back on track.

 

He will also back moves to encourage more students from deprived backgrounds into higher education by strengthening ties between schools and universities.

 

Education campaigners have warned that top-up fees of £3,000 per year are hampering progress to get more teenagers from poor backgrounds to apply.