Spend less money on fake tans and going to the gym to look like TOWIE rejects and feed your children. It is a parents first priority in life to look after their children, not the State, NHS, social services, housing or education. If you cannot afford to have children then don't have them 'til you can. I don't own a house in the South of France or a yacht as I cannot fund them but I don't expect someone else to fork out for them just because I can fill in a benefit application.

let hope africa got some good rock bands

people ? my old dad worked,he didnt get much money, he gave me mam is wages every friday in cash.me mam managed to put a little away every week to pay all the bills,she didnt have a bank account she had different cups in a cupboard,todays house wife,has everything laptop,mobile,and benefis for everything, and still cant cope,

And i wonder how many of these parents smoke and drink?

Well said Vera, it seems like the mega rich are allowed to complain about how hard it is to live off 1 million a year but those earning minimum wage must not complain about the difficulty they have living in an age where the mega rich are getting richer but the middle class and poor are worse off, what with everything increasing apart from wages eventually more and more kids are going to be living in poverty, but then they will just lift the bar and instead of 60% of the mean wage being in poverty it will be 40%.

You have to love how some of the "I'm alright Jack" brigade are quick to jump on this story with the usual accusations and anecdotes of lazy unemployed scroungers etc etc, without engaging brain first.
I have 5 children, and was made redundant in December. I am so desperate for work that I have literally printed out over 500 copies of my cv, complete with covering letter, and trudged the streets of Cockermouth, Workington, Whitehaven and Carlisle. I have knocked on the doors of Sealys, Border Cars, Nestle amongst approx 200 others, and so far have received no hope whatsoever. Im in my mid-thirties, have worked since I was 16 and have a Degree, but I'm truly not fussy about the work I do. After all, my family will be homeless in approx 3 wks if I don't find work before then. I can't even get a job washing dishes, which I would do.
So if any of the "I'm Alright Jack" brigade want to come back and offer me an interview for a real job, over 35 hrs a week (will happily do up to 120 hrs), which will allow me to support my kids and save my home from being repossessed feel free.

I get fed up of hearing about poverty being the root cause of underachieving children. I am married, work, have three children and very little money.

My two older children, of school age, are both doing very well academically. My wife and I spend time on ensuring they do their homework and helping them where necessary with school work and encourage them to have a positive attitude to learning and a respect for teachers. The fact they have a dad who works also, I like to beleive, instills a work ethic in them.

It's disinterested, lazy, workless, feckless partents who hold their kids back, not a lack of cash. It wouldn't matter how much cash you threw at these families, the kids would still, in the main, emulate their parents. That's what kids do.

Unless you legislate against the lazy producing kids they have no intention of nurturing and educating there will always be underacheiving parents producing underacheiving children. And so the cycle goes on and on.

The worst thing is it has now become a socially acceptable and financially viable way of life. At the risk of sounding like someone regurgitating a Daily Mail article check out the governments own benifits calculator, I was amazed at what we'd get as a family if I made worklessness a lifestyle choice. Damn and blast my work ethic!

With the calculation being used to calculate "poverty" being 60% of median wages, you will always have poverty. It's a nonsense figure and something invented by the Labour party to garner votes from those who can't be bothered to find work or improve things for themselves.

Vera, if you cant tell the difference between a benefit and a tax, there is little i can do to help you.

What is interesting about this story is what it doesnt say. The story states what the situation currently is but gives no context.

The reason why was that a study done in the middle of last year showed in actual fact a dramtic drop in child poverty across all of england and wales.

We currently have the case of the woman in Tewksbury with 11 kids making so much out of benefits she can afford £200 a month to keep a horse - presumably to ride it rather than to feed the kids. I feel sorry for those working on a low wage but those on benefits get far too much and their kids would be well of if their parents didn't spend it all on fags and liquor.