Redford Government challenged to �Achieve the Promise�
Report reveals 91,000 children live in poor families
EDMONTON—A new report on child and family poverty outlines the challenge Alberta faces if we are going to eliminate child poverty in five years and reduce poverty for everyone in ten years, as promised by Premier Redford during the recent provincial election.The report, entitled Achieving the Promise: Ending Poverty in Alberta, was published on National Child Day, November 20th by the Edmonton Social Planning Council, the Alberta College of Social Workers and Public Interest Alberta. This report is one of many reports being released across the country by the national coalition, Campaign 2000. Some of the main findings of the report include:- 91,000 children under the age of 18 were living below the low-income measure (LIM after tax), 11.3% of all Alberta children.
- The poverty rate was higher for children under the age of six with one in six children, (17.2% = 48,200 children) below the LIM.
- The majority (52%) of children living in poverty had at least one parent working full time, full year.
- There is growing inequality in Alberta with the wealthiest 10% of families seeing their incomes double in 20 years while the bottom 10% have seen only marginal increases.
- The good news is that as that there was a 12% decrease in the number of children from the previous year and that the number of children lifted out of poverty by all government transfers has increased to 47.2%.
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