To what extent do family policy and social assistance transfers reduce the frequency and intensity of child poverty ?

Children are not the actors of their socio-economic situation, they benefit or suffer from their parents' one. Even if social politics sometimes put forward a principle of the right of the child, in the end it is the standard of living of the household in which the child lives which imposes itself. In the North European countries major social transfer schemes depend on the presence of dependent children in answer to multiple objectives (birth rate support, reduced inequality in the standard of living of families, compensation towards the cost of the child, aid towards reconciling the family and professional lives of the parents, etc.), while in fact these contribute towards improving the standard of living of the family and therefore of the children. In parallel, social assistance transfers, not specifically targeted towards the children, try to ensure a minimum guaranteed income for the most deprived households from which the children can benefit indirectly. In the US, policies of support towards the standard of living are situated more explicitly and strictly in terms of assistance to the poorest families: "(?) most of the cash benefits that the American government gives to families with children go to "welfare mothers" - single parents who have no job (?)"1.