1. "Meeting the 2010 target (of halving child poverty) will require more redistribution, a change in working and employment patterns among parents and more fundamental changes to the underlying distribution of earnings and incomes." The HDR, published each year since 1''0, concentrates on the problems of poor countries, but a central theme of the report is the negative impact of inequality in both high income and low income countries.

2. It says Labour‘s untrumpeted tax and benefit changes since 1''7 have resulted in the incomes of the poorest fifth of the population rising by 20%. However, the report says the government needs to do more to load the tax and benefits system in favour of the less well–off, make it easier for poor parents to find work, and make "fundamental changes to the underlying distribution of earnings and income". A Treasury source said: "The government‘s reforms to the tax and benefit system, including measures such as the child tax credit, have played a pivotal role in lifting more than half a million children out of poverty.