this suggests that relative child poverty is lower when social spending per head is higher and also that at given expenditure levels child poverty is lower when the poorest fraction of the population receives a higher proportion of social spending table c provides detailed results of regressions applied to anchored child poverty rates the proportion of jobless families appears to be one of the main determinants of the evolution of absolute poverty measured by reference to its level in increased per capita social spending also appears to play a particularly important role in reducing the level of absolute child poverty