In 1999, then Prime Minister Tony Blair made a remarkable pledge to end child poverty, and over the subsequent decade he and Gordon Brown carried out a multi-faceted anti-poverty campaign. Although their New Labour government did not succeed in ending child poverty, they did make a substantial dent, reducing child poverty by more than half if measured in absolute terms as we do in the United States.
Jane Waldfogel, Compton Foundation Centennial Professor of Social Work for the Prevention of Children's and Youth Problems at Columbia University, delivered the 2012 John Doris Memorial Lecture on March 26, 2012, describing Britain's ambitious reforms and lessons for the United States. Waldfogel is author of "Britain's War on Poverty."