The government has released the latest official poverty statistics (for 2013/14). Anyone aware of the projections made by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the National Policy Institute think-tanks may be feeling slightly confused that, essentially, child poverty rates haven't shifted on the previous year (although half a million more children are in absolute poverty than in 2010).
So, what do and what don't the figures tell us? The government is saying the big story is that "the percentage of individuals and children in relative low income is at its lowest level since the 1980s".
Evidently, despite the prime minister's avowed doubts about the value of using a relative child poverty measure, it is okay to use that measure when it is not delivering bad news. Ministers are also tight-lipped on the fact that the big falls in child poverty happened before 2011.
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