Julie Hilling – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Hilling on 2014-03-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the effect of the removal of the under-occupancy penalty on the number of children living in relative income poverty.

Esther McVey

This information could be only provided at disproportionate cost.

This Government has made good progress in tackling the root causes of child poverty and has recently published the 2014-17 draft child poverty strategy for consultation which outlines the actions we are taking. The latest figures from 2011/12 show that 2.3m (17%) children are in relative income poverty – down 300,000 since 2009/10. These are the lowest level since the mid-1980s.