FullFact checks out some of the claims made in relation to proposed changes to Working Tax Credits and gathers some useful data to keep to one side and return to once any changes have taken effect.

“The latest set of figures shows that’ in the first quarter of 2011, 15.8 per cent of children were in workless households. This works out at fewer than one in six, rather than the one in five quoted.

“However there is data that might support the wider point about a link between child poverty and workless households.

“Using the Government’s Households Below Average Income series, we can see that child poverty (defined as children living in households with incomes 60 per cent below the median after housing costs) has been falling at roughly the same rate as the proportion of workless households in recent years.

*Child poverty data only available to 2009

“Of course this doesn’t prove that the two are causally linked, still less what impact if any the Government’s proposed changes might have, but it does provide a solid background for assessing future claims in this area.”