No 10: Welfare reform will help

A government spokesperson comments on the OECD report into inequality:

"The OECD recognises that the causes of inequality are complex. As we have seen, just putting billions of pounds into the tax and benefit system cannot alleviate poverty on its own and has the perverse effect of trapping thousands of families in a life on benefits.

"The OECD rightly points out that governments need to facilitate and encourage employment of low income groups – something we are directly focusing on through the work programme and universal credit.

"Our wide-ranging reforms will have a dramatic impact on the poorest families, improving the life chances of children at an early age and lifting almost a million people out of poverty through the universal credit."