Poverty: Children
(asked on 2nd November 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the overall impact of the (a) Autumn Budget and (b) Spending Review 2021 on levels of child poverty.
Answered by
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
While the government has not made an assessment of the SR 2021 or Autumn Budget directly on child poverty, it has made an assessment of the distributional impact of these decisions on UK households. This can be found here:
This shows that households in the poorest income deciles will, on average, gain the most as a percentage of net income in 2024-25 from decisions announced since the Spending Review in 2019.
National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication.
Latest statistics for the number of children who are in low income, can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020 in children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables.
In 2019/20, the latest year for which data is available 100,000 fewer children were living in absolute low income, before housing costs, than in 2009/10.
This Government is committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by spending over £111 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2021/22. We know that children living in workless households are around six times more likely to be in absolute low income (before housing costs) than those where all adults work, which is why our comprehensive Plan for Jobs is helping people to boost their skills in order to gain employment or increase their hours.
We recognise that some people may require extra support over the winter as we enter the final stages of recovery, which is why vulnerable households across the country will now be able to access a new £500 million support fund to help them with the cost of essentials. In England at least 50% of the £421m Household Support Fund will be used to support families with children. The Barnett Formula will apply in the usual way, with the devolved administrations receiving almost £80 million (£41m for the Scottish Government, £25m for the Welsh Government and £14m for the NI Executive), for a total of £500 million.