Asset-Based Welfare and Child Poverty: Next steps for the Welsh Assembly

Article

The Welsh Assembly Government has made asset-based welfare a key part of its long-term efforts to tackle child poverty. It has established a 'Child Trust Fund Cymru' that will place a Welsh premium in the Child Trust Funds (CTFs) of all eligible children in Wales.

In this paper we examine the Welsh Assembly Government's initiative in the context of developments in child poverty and asset-based welfare policies. We restate the case for an asset-based approach to welfare and consider what the Welsh Assembly Government might want to do next.

The paper calls for specific measures designed to increase the number of parents opening CTFs, to ensure a high rate of uptake for CTF Cymru and to encourage more parents with low incomes to place additional funds in their children's CTFs.

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