International

The Senate adopted a proposal by the SP to keep to the target of at least halving child poverty in the Netherlands by 2025. Actions should be taken to reduce child poverty as much as possible towards this target next year. The proposal was widely supported, only the PVV voted against it.

The SP previously drew attention to this problem in the Senate. In debates in 2018 and 2016, the SP party put forward proposals to set targets to reduce child poverty. In 2022, following a question by Senator Rik Janssen, the government pledged not to deviate from the targets. If necessary, additional measures would be used to do so.

Those measures are badly needed now. Without additional measures, child poverty will not decrease – certainly not halve - but the number of children growing up in poverty will rise in 2024 and in 2025. Now that this proposal has been passed by a large majority in the Senate, this caretaker government will have to really work on reducing child poverty.