Figures to be published tomorrow will show that Gordon Brown has failed to meet his promise to lift more than a million children out of poverty in Labour's first four years in office, despite having made significant progress last year towards its target.

Forum Response: The Children's Society

The Children's Society told ePolitix.com: "We believe that there remains a vast amount of work to be done to ensure that its pledge is realised.

"To this end we believe the government should introduce the following measures:

• The establishment of a Minimum Income standard for families to cover the real costs of family life ensuring that poverty and social exclusion can be avoided.

• Reform of the Social Fund to a grants based system to prevent families living on benefits falling into debt.

• End the discrimination of 16 and 17 year olds in the benefits system. Currently this group of young people cannot access sufficient benefit entitlement to gain an independent living, yet the costs of living for young people are no different for that of adults as many costs are fixed regardless of age (i.e. food and electricity).

• Extend the provision of free school meals to families in receipt of Working Families Tax Credit. This would be a significant step to eradicating the social exclusion effects of poverty felt by children and young people in school.

"Children and young people are a significant group who experience poverty and we believe they should be given the opportunity to contribute to services and decisions that affect their lives, particularly those that have a negative effect such as the withdrawal of secure sources of income," he said.

"We believe that government should take these significant steps to ensure that child poverty is ended once and for all."