Second Tier Child Income Support: The Case for Innovation (Report‪)‬

1. INTRODUCTION This paper examines the five current instruments which deliver child income support in order to assess the case for adopting a new form of targeting children in low income households. Sections 2 and 3 briefly invoke the origins of the current 'system' of child income support and the wider context to combating child poverty (1), while Section 4 summaries the evidence that levels of child income poverty continue at a high level. The heart of the paper is in Sections 5 and 6. Section 5 conducts a detailed examination of the strengths and weaknesses of each current instrument if further resources were to be channelled through it in a bid to reach the children still below the income poverty line. Section 6 addresses the question of reform, using some selected international examples to make the case for introducing a new form of targeting. It identifies the practical innovations required of public data and delivery systems in order to implement the new form of targeting.