Chris Ruane – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of children were in (a) relative and (b) absolute poverty in each region and constituent part of the UK in each of the last 20 years.

Esther McVey

Estimates of the number and proportion of children in relative and absolute low income are published in the National Statistics Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. HBAI uses household income adjusted (or ‘equivalised’) for household size and composition, to provide a proxy for standard of living. This information is captured using the Family Resources Survey (FRS).

Estimates of the number and proportion of children in relative and absolute low income in the UK have consistently been reported using the FRS since 1998/99; these estimates are available for each financial year up to 2011/12, the latest period for which estimates are available.

All of these estimates can be found in the latest HBAI publication, available at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/households-below-average-income-hbai-199495-to-201112 (ISBN 978-1-78153-531-8).

Relevant estimates can be found in Tables 4.16ts-4.17ts for relative low income (pages 135-136) and Tables 4.22ts-4.23ts for absolute low income (pages 141-142).

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