The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, is expected to unveil a new three-year strategy to tackle child poverty on Thursday, which could include a new definition of what constitutes poverty.
Mr Duncan Smith, who launched a consultation to consider ways in which to widen the measure of child poverty in 2012, has said that the income method of measuring poverty is too simplistic.
Currently, a child is said to be living in poverty if their household income is less than 60 per cent of the average (median) UK income.
Additional indicators of child poverty that are being considered as part of the consultation include: income and material deprivation, worklessness, unmanageable debt, poor housing, parental skill level, access to quality education, parental health and family stability.
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