Child poverty remains a significant concern across Europe and citizens regard policy interventions that effec-
tively address this issue to be of utmost importance. In this work, we analyse the potential of social transfer
policy alternatives to alleviate child and overall poverty simultaneously in European countries. Using a logistic
regression to define the objective functions and constraints, we rely on multiobjective programming to assess key
features of national social transfer systems that can minimize child and overall poverty and tend to equal both
levels downwards. Taking into account the starting levels of each country, the results underline the importance of
finding an adequate combination of pro-child and pro-poor targeting of social transfer policies. For most Eu-
ropean countries, an increase in the level of cash benefits for children is advisable – particularly universal
benefits – except in Croatia, the Netherlands, and Norway. Nonetheless, in France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, the
Netherlands, and Spain, the recommended proportion of GDP allocated to universal cash benefits is lower than
the proportion allocated to means-tested benefits. In this regard, our research provides an innovative approach
for policymakers to optimize poverty reduction strategies by contributing valuable insights for the design and
implementation of effective social transfer policies to combat child and overall poverty in European countries.