Poverty: Children
(asked on 20th May 2019) - View Source
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.
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.