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Poverty

Answer

Estimates of the number and proportion of various groups of individuals living in poverty are published in the 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.The following table shows the proportion and number of workless households that are in poverty also include (a) one or more and (b) two or more disabled adults. Households that contain only adults above pension age have been excluded from this analysis.

Proportion and number of workless households that are in poverty with at least one working-age adult that also include (a) one or more and (b) two or more disabled adults, United Kingdom, 2009-10
	Before housing costs	After housing costs
Workless households with at least one working-age adult in poverty with	Number (Million)	Proportion (Percentage)	Number (Million)	Proportion (Percentage)
One or more disabled adults	0.8	44	1.1	45
Two or more disabled adults	0.1	6	0.1	6
Notes:
1. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data available at:
http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/index.php?page=hbai_arc
2. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data sourced from the 2009-10 Family Resources Survey (FRS). This uses disposable household income, adjusted using modified OECD equivalisation factors for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living.
3. Net disposable incomes have been used to answer the question. This includes earnings from employment and self-employment, state support, income from occupational and private pensions, investment income and other sources. Income tax, payments, national insurance contributions, council tax/domestic rates and some other payments are deducted from incomes.
4. Figures have been presented on a before housing cost and an after housing cost basis. For before housing costs, housing costs are not deducted from income, while for after housing costs they are.
5. All estimates are based on survey data and are therefore subject to a degree of uncertainty. Small differences should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response.
6. The reference period for HBAI figures is the financial year.
7. Number of households have been rounded to the nearest 100,000.
8. Proportion of households have been rounded to the nearest percentage point.
9. Poverty has been defined as:
relative low income: households with equivalised households incomes below 60% of contemporary median household income, before or after housing costs.
10. For this analysis, disability is defined as having any long-standing illness, disability or impairment that leads to a substantial difficulty with one or more areas of the individual's life. Everyone classified as disabled under this definition would also be classified as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 (and the Disability Discrimination Act which was in force at the time of the survey). However, some individuals classified as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 would not be captured by this definition, as the Family Resources Survey, the source of the Households Below Average Income series, does not fully collect this information.
11. No adjustment is made to disposable household income to take into account any additional costs that may be incurred due to an illness or disability, because research shows these vary significantly in level and nature, and there is no general agreement on how to measure these costs.
12. A household is defined as workless if no one within the household is classified as working; otherwise the household is defined as working, so is wider than just those individuals classified as unemployed. We have excluded households that do not contain working-age adults.
Source:
Households Below Average Income 1994-95 to 2009-10, DWP.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

72214; 533 c245-6W

Session

2010-12

Subjects

Poverty

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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