Led by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) to mark the sixtieth anniversary of child benefits, the 'Make Child Benefit Count' campaign calls for the youngest child in a family to get the same rate as the oldest child.
The present rate of child benefit amounts to 17.45 a week for the first child and 11.70 a week for the second and all subsequent children.
In the report, 'Child benefit: fit for the future', published by the CPAG to coincide with the campaign's launch, the organisation says that increasing child benefit and paying it at the same rate for all children would help to assist larger families. This is vital if the Government is to meet its targets to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020.
Kate Green, chief executive of the CPAG, commented, 'Child benefit is popular, effective and reaches more children living in poverty than any other benefit or tax credit.
'This (increase) would help support larger families which is vital if child poverty is to be ended once and for all. And it would be a fitting way to mark the sixtieth anniversary of one of the key elements of the welfare state, namely support for families with children.'
The campaign was launched by 86-year-old Edith Wyper from Edinburgh, one of the first mothers to receive family allowance, as it was then known, in 1946, together with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
It is being backed by End Child Poverty, the TUC, Save the Children, Citizens Advice, One Parent Families, Barnardo's, Family Welfare Association and Daycare Trust.
To register your support for the campagin, send the chancellor Gordon Brown an electronic postcard. For details, visit www. makechildbenefitcount.org.