This paper assesses the policy consensus that exists amongst political parties in the UK in their shared ambition to eradicate child poverty by 2020. Three major pillars of policy – work intensification, re-distribution and skill upgrading – are challenged in terms of their likely success in reducing child poverty. In particular, the assumption that upgrading skills will raise earnings is challenged by examining the changing patterns of work in a selection of developed economies since the 1970s. This paper argues that addressing relative poverty requires an alternative theoretical approach to the neoclassical economics that currently underpins policy. Different national levels of earnings dispersion suggest that the role of institutions and culture in determining market outcomes deserves at least as much attention as the supply of skills.