Child poverty is costing £40 billion a year through increased crime, public spending and lost economic productivity, a TUC conference will be told today. Without urgent action the Government will miss its pledge to halve the 3.8 million children currently living in poverty by 2010.

Measures in the Comprehensive Spending Review will, according to the Government’s own figures, lift only an extra 100,000 children above the poverty threshold. They fall far short of the extra £4 billion that experts agree is needed to halve child poverty by 2010, the conference, coinciding with World Poverty Day will hear.

At £40 billion, the cost of inaction on child poverty is ten times the cost of reducing it. The TUC believe the £4 billion needed can easily be paid for by fairer taxation of the super-rich. Introducing a proper residence test for non-doms would raise more than £4 billion.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber (right) said: ‘As the world focuses on the plight of children around the globe, it’s shocking that 3.8 million children in the UK are living in poverty. Child poverty costs £40 billion a year, or £2,500 for every family in the UK. It’s a problem none of us can afford to ignore.

‘But the Government’s commitment to halve child poverty by 2010 must now be in doubt, following the failure to step up spending and a deeply unambitious tax take from the super-rich.

‘Hints that the Government is thinking of adopting tax breaks for marriage is even more worrying. Child poverty can only be eradicated by focusing on the needs of the children, not on the marital status of the parents. A tax break for married parents is the same as a tax punishment for the children of lone and unmarried parents.

‘An extra investment of £4 billion is needed to halve child poverty by 2010. But the cost of inaction is ten times greater. The Government is running out of time to meet its child poverty pledge. Today, as members of the Campaign to end child poverty, we urge the Government to take decisive action.’

Today’s TUC Poverty Conference will kick off a ‘Month of Action’ organised by the Campaign to End Poverty – a coalition of more than 90 organisations committed to eradicating child poverty in the UK. Speakers at the conference will examine the impact of benefits, housing and social services on child poverty. The keynote speaker will be the Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Director of the Campaign to End Child Poverty Hilary Fisher said: ‘Poverty has a devastating effect on children’s lives. It shapes their development, impacts their education and shortens their lives. The Government must act now to invest the £4bn necessary to improve the lives of millions of children.’