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Dept for Work and Pensions

Answer

Paul Farrelly: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children (a) are defined as living below the poverty line and (b) have moved above the poverty line in each year in (i) Newcastle-under- Lyme and (ii) England since 1997. [198706] Mr. Pond: Poverty is about more than low income, it also impacts on the way people live--their health, housing and the quality of their environment. The sixth annual `Opportunity for all' report (Cm 6239) sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and presents information on the indicators used to measure progress against this strategy. In December 2003, we published `Measuring child poverty' which outlines the Government's new measure of child poverty which will be used from 2004-05. Both of these documents are available in the Library. There is not a measure which sets out the numbers of children in poverty for the years since 1997 and we do not produce yearly estimates of the number of children leaving low income. However, data on the number of children living in low income households is available. The threshold of below 60 per cent. contemporary median income is the most commonly used in reporting absolute and relative trends in low income. The number of children in England below 60 per cent. contemporary median income from 1997-98 is in the table. Figures are not available below Government Office Region level. Specific information regarding low income at Government Office Region level is available in `Households Below Average Income 1994/95- 2002/03', which is available in the Library. Number of children in England below 60 per cent. contemporary median income Million _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Before housing costs After housing costs 1997-98 2.7 3.7 1998-99 2.6 3.7 1999-2000 2.6 3.6 2000-01 2.3 3.4 2001-02 2.2 3.3 2002-03 2.2 3.1 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000. Source: Households Below Average Income.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

198706; 426 c1863-4W;426 c1867-8W

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Children Households Low incomes Poverty Newcastle-under-Lyme

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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