A new study has found childless adults are falling behind in the bid to eradicate poverty.
The London School of Economics' report into the government's performance since 1997 says child poverty rates are falling in line with targets and the number of pensioners below the poverty line has also fallen.
However the study, carried out for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found working adults without children had been left behind by Gordon Brown's tax and benefit reforms.
Although many people have gained from rising living standards and falling unemployment, large numbers depend on benefits whose value has been frozen.
The proportion of households below three-fifths of national average earnings - the official poverty line - rose from 12 per cent to 13 per cent from 1997 to 2003.
Professor Hills, director of the centre for analysis of social exclusion at the LSE, said: "In some of the most important areas, the tide has turned and policy has contributed to turning that tide. This is no mean achievement... However, it does not follow that policy has already succeeded."
The report found that tax and benefit changes have put the government on course to cut the number of children brought up in poverty by 25 per cent between 1998/99 and 2004/05.
Spending patterns showed low-income families with children are now spending more on children's clothes, footwear, games and toys, but no more on alcohol or tobacco.
But relative child poverty levels in the
