Asked by: Baroness Primarolo (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 17 June (HL Deb, col 652), what is their definition of "absolute poverty".
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
Government definitions of low income households are set out in the annual National Statistics publication Households Below Average Income. Someone is in absolute low income (commonly referred to as ‘absolute poverty’), if they are in a household that received less than 60% of the UK median equivalised net household income in 2010/11, adjusted for inflation.
Absolute low income is measured both before and after housing costs. Housing costs include; rent (gross of housing benefit); water rates, community water charges and council water charges; mortgage interest payments; structural insurance premiums (for owner occupiers); ground rent and service charges.
Asked by: Baroness Primarolo (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Buscombe on 21 May (HL Deb, col 1858), on what evidence they base their statement that “inequality has fallen”; and whether they will publish that evidence.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
National statistics on income inequality are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication using the Gini coefficient. The Gini coefficient is an international standard technical measure of how incomes are distributed across all individuals. It ranges from 0% (when everyone has identical incomes) to 100% (when all income goes to only one person).
From 2009/10 to 2017/18 income inequality, measured using the before housing cost Gini coefficient, has fallen by 2 percentage points. See the table below for the annual statistics from 2009/10 to 2017/18.
This data is published annually on the “Households Below Average Income” website on gov.uk.
Year | Income inequality (Gini Coefficient. %) |
2009/10 | 36 |
2010/11 | 34 |
2011/12 | 34 |
2012/13 | 34 |
2013/14 | 34 |
2014/15 | 34 |
2015/16 | 35 |
2016/17 | 34 |
2017/18 | 34 |
Asked by: Baroness Primarolo (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 16 May (HL15606), whether they will now answer the question put.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
The information on numbers of children entering and exiting poverty is not available. However, figures for percentages of children moving in and out of poverty are collected in the Income Dynamics publication. These are available in Table 8.1, and in the table below:
| 2010-2011 to 2011-2012 | 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 | 2012-2013 to 2013-2014 | 2013-2014 to 2014-2015 | 2014-2015 to 2015-2016 | 2015-2016 to 2016-2017 |
% children entering poverty | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 |
% children exiting poverty | 34 | 35 | 37 | 33 | 33 | 35 |
The percentage of children entering poverty is the percentage of only those children who were not in poverty in the earlier year but who were in poverty the following year. The percentage of children exiting poverty is the percentage of only those children who were in poverty in the earlier year but who were out of poverty the following year. Entry and exit rates are very different (since entry / exit rates are expressed as a percentage of only those not previously in poverty / previously in poverty respectively).
The threshold used is 60 per cent of median equivalised household income Before Housing Costs (BHC). Since household incomes are subject to measurement error, and the threshold is subject to sampling and measurement error, the analysis only includes ‘clear’ transitions. For an entry/exit to count, household incomes must cross the 60 per cent of median income threshold and be at least 10 per cent higher / lower than the threshold in the following year.
Asked by: Baroness Primarolo (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children were living in absolute poverty in each year between 2010 and 2017; and how those figures were calculated.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
National statistics on the number of children in absolute low income for the period 2009/10 to 2015/16 are available in the annual "Households Below Average Income".
Year | Number of children living in absolute low income before housing costs |
2009/10 | 2.5m |
2010/11 | 2.3m |
2011/12 | 2.6m |
2012/13 | 2.5m |
2013/14 | 2.4m |
2014/15 | 2.3m |
2015/16 | 2.3m |
m = a million
Figures for 2016/17 are due to be published on 22 March 2018.
Absolute low income is calculated by taking the 60 per cent of median income threshold from 2010/11 and increasing this each year in line with inflation (using variants of the Consumer Price Index). This measure is designed to assess how the number of children in low income families compares with 2010/11 after taking account of inflation.
Asked by: Baroness Primarolo (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children were living in poverty in workless households in each year between 2010 and 2017 (1) before housing costs, and (2) after housing costs.
Answered by Baroness Buscombe
National statistics on the number of children living in relative low income, in workless households, before and after housing costs, for the period 2009/10 to 2015/16 have been calculated from figures published in the annual "Households Below Average Income" publication.
Year | Number of children living in relative low income, in workless households | |
Before Housing Costs | After Housing Costs | |
2009/10 | 1.2m | 1.8m |
2010/11 | 1.0m | 1.5m |
2011/12 | 0.8m | 1.3m |
2012/13 | 0.9m | 1.4m |
2013/14 | 0.8m | 1.4m |
2014/15 | 0.9m | 1.3m |
2015/16 | 0.9m | 1.3m |
m = a million
Figures for 2016/17 are due to be published on 22 March 2018.