Poverty (Hansard, 10 December 2002)

§ Huw Irranca-Davies
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what definition the government uses of(a) relative and (b) absolute poverty as applicable to government policy; and what plans the government has to review the utility and appropriateness of definitions of poverty in respect of government policy. [85760]

§ Dawn Primarolo
For the purposes of the Public Service Agreement target to reduce the number of children living in low income households by a quarter by 2004–05 compared to 1998–99, the Government measure the number of children in households with an equivalised income below 60 per cent. of the contemporary median, as reported in "Households Below Average Income". This is a measure of relative income distribution; statistics on absolute measures based on income thresholds fixed in real terms are also published, as is information on pensioners and working-age adults.
Low income is central to poverty. But poverty is a complex multi-dimensional issue, related to many other aspects of people's lives—including health, housing, the quality of the environment, and opportunities to learn. A broader set of indicators related to poverty and social exclusion, going beyond income, is published in the annual report "Opportunity for All".
Looking further ahead, the Government are committed to finding a measure of child poverty that will both underpin effective policy-making and enable the public to gauge progress towards the long-term goal of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it within a generation. In April 2002 the Department for 266W Work and Pensions launched a consultation exercise on measuring child poverty in the long-term. Preliminary conclusions are due to be published by spring 2003.

§ Huw Irranca-Davies
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on the use of a version of the budget standards model to define poverty; and what assessment he has made of the effect on poverty of the poorest households of change since 1977, using a budget standards model. [85761]

§ Dawn Primarolo
A wide range of research has been produced into what constitutes an "adequate" level of income for a family with children, following different budget standards models. However, there is no simple answer to the question of which level of incomes is adequate for all family types. Different research methods tend to make different assumptions and generate a range of estimates. It would be difficult to justify any one set of assumptions against another equally plausible set.
Statistics based on relative and absolute low income going back to 1979 are published in "Households Below Average Income".