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Pensioner Poverty

Answer

[holding answer 12 December 2005]: The seventh annual ‘Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6673) sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and reports progress against a range of indicators. Detailed information about the number and proportion of pensioners living in low income households for Great Britain is available in ““Households Below Average Income (HBAI) 1994–95–2003–04””, available in the Library.Robust figures on pensioners in low income, broken down by region, for each of the last 30 years are not available. Three-year rolled averages for the number and proportion of pensioners in absolute low income are available for the Government office regions, Scotland and Wales from 1994–95. These are set out in the following tables. Equivalent data is not available for Northern Ireland, as the necessary information has only been collected for two financial years.An individual in absolute low income is defined as someone living in a household with income below 60 per cent. of 1996–97 median income, adjusted for inflation.

Number of pensioners in absolute low income (millions)
	Three-year rolling averages
	1994–95 to 1996–97	1995–96 to 1997–98	1996–97 to 1998–99	1997–98 to 1999–2000	1998–99 to 2000–2001	1999–2000 to 2001–02	2000–01 to 2002–03	2001–02 to 2003–04
Before housing costs
North East	0.12	0.11	0.10	0.09	0.09	0.07	0.06	0.04
North West and Merseyside	0.30	0.28	0.27	0.26	0.23	0.20	0.18	0.16
Yorkshire and Humberside	0.24	0.23	0.21	0.20	0.18	0.15	0.12	0.11
East Midlands	0.18	0.19	0.18	0.18	0.16	0.15	0.14	0.12
West Midlands	0.21	0.22	0.22	0.20	0.19	0.17	0.16	0.15
Eastern	0.25	0.21	0.20	0.20	0.19	0.17	0.14	0.12
London	0.20	0.20	0.19	0.17	0.16	0.15	0.13	0.12
South East	0.29	0.28	0.27	0.26	0.24	0.22	0.19	0.17
South West	0.24	0.24	0.23	0.22	0.19	0.17	0.15	0.13
Wales	0.15	0.14	0.13	0.12	0.11	0.09	0.07	0.07
Scotland	0.23	0.21	0.18	0.16	0.15	0.13	0.10	0.09
Source: Family Resources Survey

Number of pensioners in absolute low income (millions)
	Three-year rolling averages
	1994–95 to 1996–97	1995–96 to 1997–98	1996–97 to 1998–99	1997–98 to 1999–2000	1998–99 to 2000–2001	1999–2000 to 2001–02	2000–01 to 2002–03	2001–02 to 2003–04
After housing costs
North East	0.16	0.15	0.13	0.11	0.09	0.07	0.05	0.04
North West and Merseyside	0.35	0.33	0.31	0.27	0.22	0.17	0.14	0.12
Yorkshire and Humberside	0.29	0.27	0.25	0.22	0.18	0.14	0.11	0.08
East Midlands	0.21	0.21	0.19	0.18	0.16	0.13	0.12	0.10
West Midlands	0.25	0.26	0.24	0.21	0.18	0.15	0.13	0.11
Eastern	0.32	0.26	0.25	0.23	0.21	0.15	0.12	0.10
London	0.33	0.31	0.29	0.27	0.23	0.19	0.14	0.12
South East	0.38	0.35	0.32	0.31	0.26	0.22	0.17	0.15
South West	0.28	0.29	0.26	0.23	0.19	0.15	0.12	0.09
Wales	0.16	0.15	0.13	0.12	0.10	0.08	0.06	0.05
Scotland	0.28	0.26	0.23	0.20	0.17	0.13	0.10	0.08
Source: Family Resources Survey The following table gives the percentage of pensioners living in absolute low income for Scotland, Wales and Government office regions.

Percentage of pensioners in absolute low income (percentage)
	Three-year rolling averages
	1994–95 to 1996–97	1995–96 to 1997–98	1996–97 to 1998–99	1997–98 to 1999–2000	1998–99 to 2000–2001	1999–2000 to 2001–02	2000–01 to 2002–03	2001–02 to 2003–04
Before housing costs
North East	26	23	21	20	20	15	12	9
North West and Merseyside	25	23	23	22	19	16	15	13
Yorkshire and Humberside	28	26	24	23	20	17	14	12
East Midlands	26	26	25	24	22	20	19	16
West Midlands	26	25	23	21	20	18	17	15
Eastern	24	22	22	21	20	17	14	12
London	20	19	18	17	15	14	13	12
South East	21	20	18	18	17	15	13	12
South West	24	25	23	22	19	17	15	12
Wales	27	25	23	22	19	16	13	12
Scotland	27	24	21	19	14	14	12	10
After housing costs
North East	35	32	28	24	20	15	10	8
North West and Merseyside	29	28	26	23	19	14	11	10
Yorkshire and Humberside	33	31	28	25	21	16	12	9
East Midlands	29	29	27	24	21	17	16	13
West Midlands	31	29	26	23	20	16	14	11
Eastern	31	28	27	24	22	16	12	10
London	32	30	28	26	23	19	14	12
South East	27	25	23	22	18	15	12	10
South West	29	29	26	24	19	15	12	9
Wales	28	27	24	22	18	15	11	9
Scotland	32	29	26	23	19	15	11	9
Note: 1.Figures are provided using a three-year rolled average, as single-year estimates do not provide a robust guide to year-on-year changes. Figures are therefore not same as previously published single-year estimates. 2. Tables show numbers in millions and rounded to the nearest 10,000. Source: Family Resources Survey

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

440 c1996-8W; 36911

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Pensioners Poverty Location

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk