Poverty: Children
(asked on 13th March 2018) - View Source
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.
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.