Child poverty
Despite a pledge to halve the number of children in poverty by 2010, 2.8 million children were living below the relative poverty line in 2005/06, with the figure rising to 3.8 million after housing costs were factored in.
That is an increase from 2.7 million and 3.6 million respectively on the previous year.
The Department for Work and Pensions said it was refocusing £150m in resources in a package which would "redouble efforts to reduce child poverty".
Party Response: Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrat spokesman David Laws said: "These figures are dreadful for the government – with child poverty rising to almost a third of all UK children. Poverty in Britain is increasing again, and social mobility seems to have been falling.
"The government’s ambition to cut child poverty now looks in tatters – with Labour likely to miss its 2010 child poverty target by over one million children.
"The overall poverty figures have also soared with higher poverty amongst children and poverty in people of working age jumping by over half a million.
"Since Labour was elected, Britain has become a more unequal place to live, as the government’s overall measure of inequality now shows.
"It is now vital that there should be a re-assessment of child poverty policy, to see what more ought to be done to reduce poverty levels.
"It is clear that Brown’s unhealthy and expensive concoction of complex tax credits and benefits is failing to help the millions of Britain’s living in poverty."
"We need more commitment to the goal of cutting child poverty – with extra investment in education and childcare for the poorest children and a reduction in regressive taxes. Better housing, more employment support, and a more stable and effective benefits system are also essential.
"Without a radical upgrading of policy in these areas, one of the most important ambitions of this government is not going to be delivered."
Stakeholder Response: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
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Donald Hirsch, author of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report What will it take to end child poverty? said: "These figures confirm our analysis that after an unprecedented period in which child poverty has been falling, it is now levelling off.
"The government and society will have to redouble its efforts if the reduction is to continue in line with government ambitions.
"The new measures announced by the DWP should help by bringing more parents into work, but this can only be part of the story.
"Unless those who remain outside work have their benefits uprated at least in line with earnings, their poverty will deepen. That is not happening systematically, and last week's Budget measures, while welcome, do only a small part of the job required of benefits and tax credits.
"But even redistribution and welfare-to-work combined will not be enough.
"The government has acknowledged that the pay and prospects of those who enter work - and often still find themselves poor - needs to improve.
"This is now a stated goal of the government, but the latest strategy document does not yet contain specifics on how it is to be achieved.
"For welfare to become reoriented to help people after entering work to establish themselves and to progress, as suggested by the Freud Review, a huge culture change is needed within government.
"Employers also need to play their part. And over the long term, only an improvement in education and in qualifications among disadvantaged groups will raise job prospects sufficiently in the next generation of parents."
Stakeholder Response: Disability Rights Commission
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Sir Bert Massie, DRC chairman, said: "With one in three children living in poverty having at least one disabled parent (264,000 being lone parents) this is not a matter of 'special pleading', but a determining factor in whether the government’s child poverty goals will be reached.
"For the huge numbers of families affected by disability, the government’s child poverty strategy is critical to improving their life chances, and to the Department for Work and Pensions’ lead role in promoting equality for disabled people."
"It would be extremely unfortunate if the first significant policy initiative by the DWP since the Disability Equality Duty came into force failed to address the circumstances of families affected by disability.
"Given the challenges faced in securing commitment to equality for disabled people across government, failure to send a positive message about the priority accorded to disability equality by its lead Department would inevitably undermine this work."
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