Conservative leader David Cameron has promised to get tough on the causes of poverty, as he set out his plans to end what he dubbed a "moral disgrace".
While Labour had relied on the "clunking mechanisms of the state", a Tory government would also target unemployment, education and family breakdown, he said.
And he called for a massive boost in the involvement of the social and charity sectors in battling to raise standards of living for the worst off.
Mr Cameron spoke out in a speech to mark the 25th anniversary of the Scarman Report - which identified poverty as a principal cause of the Brixton riots. "I believe that poverty is an economic waste and a moral disgrace," he said.
Poverty should not be measured in absolute terms, but relative: "the fact that some people lack those things which others in society take for granted," he said. "So I want this message to go out loud and clear: the Conservative Party recognises, will measure and will act on relative poverty."
There was a "crucial difference" between his party's approach and that of Labour, he said.
"Tackling poverty involves much more than the redistribution of money through the tax and benefits system. We have to think about the causes of poverty," he added.
"We have to disaggregate the problem - to look at the various types of poverty that exist, and the factors that contribute to them. Because for most people, material poverty is a consequence of other factors: family breakdown; drug and alcohol addiction; unemployment; poor education.
"Entrenched poverty often reflects the absence of the supporting structures and constructive relationships which help you stand on your own feet and which are the foundation of aspiration, ambition and hope. This is what government should be focusing on. Instead, Labour rely too heavily on redistributing money, and on the large, clunking mechanisms of the state."
The state had a role to play, he said, but the Conservative mission was to "roll forward the frontiers of society".
