The issue of how to tackle child poverty is politically divisive within the coalition. Duncan Smith and several other senior Tories favour new ways of measuring poverty that go beyond a focus on a family's income; for example, taking into consideration whether a child's parents are drug addicts or alcoholics and whether they are in work.

This approach has been controversial, with some critics claiming that it is an attempt to massage the numbers of children who are classed as living in poverty.

Radical plans to cut water, food and fuel bills for low-income families are being considered by the coalition as part of the government's new child poverty strategy.