What is Child Poverty

What is Child Poverty

Child poverty, as with poverty itself, is a complex notion to define precisely and there is no universal agreed definition. The European Union's working definition of poverty is:

'Persons, families and groups of persons whose resources (material, cultural and social) are so limited as to exclude them from the minimum acceptable way of life in the Member State to which they belong'.

The UK Government, following the consultation on "Measuring Child Poverty", set out three approaches to examining and measuring child poverty in the UK over time:

• Absolute low income: this indicator measures whether the poorest families are seeing their income rise in real terms. The level is fixed as equal to the relative low-income threshold for the baseline year of 1998-99 expressed in today's prices;
• Relative low income: this measures whether the poorest families are keeping pace with the growth of incomes in the economy as a whole. This indicator measures the number of children living in households below 60 % of contemporary median equivalised household income. It compares the incomes of the less well off in a society to that of the 'typical household' so threshold changes as wealth of society changes ('moving poverty line'). To read more about median UK income click here to National Statistics online and here to The Poverty Site; and
• Material deprivation and low income combined: this indicator provides a wider measure of people's living standards. This indicator measures the number of children living in households that are both materially deprived and have an income below 70% of contemporary median equivalised household income. Material deprivation looks at living standards such as:
  • A holiday away from home at least one week a year with family
  • Swimming at least once a month
  • Friends around for tea / snack once a fortnight
  • Celebrations on special occasions e.g. birthdays
  • Going on a school trip at least once a term

Child Poverty - More than an income issue

The Child Public Health Special Interest Group have produced a paper called From Womb To Tomb – the case for investing in interventions to reduce the impact of CHILD POVERTY. The paper looks at evidence accumulated over teh last 20 years showing that the health of adults is influenced significantly by what they experienced during development both in the mother’s womb, and in their early years. Lifecourse theories have been developed to explain these observations, providing an explanation for the persistence and worsening of inequalities by describing the ways in which health (both good and bad) is transmitted from generation to generation.

Children born to and living in poverty are especially vulnerable to the effects of material deprivation and impaired quality of social relationships on their physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual development. What matters is equality of opportunity for optimum development which in turn determines health and wellbeing throughout the life course.

Poverty in childhood has persistent ill effects on nervous and stress hormone systems leading to lifelong problems in learning, behaviour, physical and mental health, thus compromising the fostering of resilience and capability. Click here to find From Womb to Tomb in our Key Documents for Health Service.

The UK Government monitors child poverty against all three measures with a target attached to the relative low-income measure, recognising that when family income falls below that of others in society, this has additional negative outcomes including inequality of opportunity and social exclusion.

"A Fair Future for Our Children" the strategy of the Welsh Assembly Government for tackling child poverty, classifies child poverty into three areas:

Income Poverty

Low income denies children opportunities, and both children and adults agree that better sustainable job opportunities are the main route out of poverty. Currently households living in poverty are defined as those existing on 60% or less of UK median income. There is also a definition of severe child poverty, where households survive on 50% or less of UK median. Wales has the highest severe child poverty of the UK regions.

2009/10, cash figures at 60% of median income are:

• £256 per week for a lone parent with two dependent children aged 5 and 14;
• £346 per week for a couple with two dependent children aged 5 and 14

At 50% of median income 2009/10 cash figures are:

• Lone parent with two children (5 and 14), £213 / week;
• Couple with two children (5 and 14), £288 / week.

National statistics on Households Below Average Income (HBAI) produced by the Department for Work and Pensions were released on 12th May this year. These statistics and commentary give an insight into the standard of living of the household population in the United Kingdom, focusing on the lower part of income distribution, for the period up to the end of 2009/10.

Also download from the Institute for Fiscal Studies presentations delivered in 2011 on Poverty and Living Standards and Inequality

Also go to the Department for Work and Pensions - Personal Tax Credits: Finalised Award Statistics - small area data - lsoa and data zone.

Find tables to show the number of families benefiting from Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit in each LSOA or Data Zone and the number of children in these families. The tables include out of work families with children who receive the same level of support as provided by Child Tax Credit, but where it is paid as child allowances in Income Support or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (IS/JSA).

These tables are based on families' entitlements to Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit at 31st August, given the family size, hours worked, childcare costs and disabilities at that date, and their latest reported incomes. This date was selected because it is the reference date for published Child Benefit statistics - including, for England and Wales, at LSOA level.

Download the table data for Wales showing the number of families benefiting from tax credits and families with children receiving out of work benefits by Local Authority: August 2009.

Services Poverty

All children and young people in Wales should enjoy equality of opportunity and access to appropriate services in an environment which respects diversity.

Service poverty is particularly felt by children, young people and their families in rural Wales where the distance they have to travel to access services adds an extra dimension to their experience of poverty and depravation. The Wales Rural Observatory published a study in 2009 entitled Deep Rural Localities documents perceptions of service access in rural Wales.

Transport poverty

The rising cost of transport and the inadequacy of our public transport system means people feel excluded and isolated, unable to access opportunities, from jobs to healthcare, that many take for granted. New figures compiled by Sustrans Cymru show that around half of all people in Wales could already be struggling with the costs of running a car.

For decades transport policy has focused on the needs of motorists; and the location of essential services such as schools, hospitals, employment opportunities, retail outlets and leisure and recreation opportunities have often been planned on the assumption that everyone has access to personal transport. This can be a particular problem in rural areas, where jobs and services are more widely dispersed, but is also an issue faced in more built up areas too. The post-industrial make up of the economy in parts of Wales has meant many are forced to travel outside of their communities to find work.

To overcome barriers to accessing essential goods and services, car ownership can seem to many to be a lifestyle essential but, as fuel prices rise and become more volatile, people are increasingly being priced out of car ownership or forced into debt. More than this, a quarter of households in Wales (over 300,000) already have no car, including half of all lone parents and two thirds of single pensioners, and many more people find public transport unaffordable, inaccessible and inappropriate to their needs. All this underlines the complexity of transport poverty but, unlike fuel poverty, there is no officially accepted definition or measure of transport poverty and no UK or Welsh Government targets to eradicate this burden.

However it is important to note that these figures are just one indicator of the situation. Transport poverty is a much bigger issue than simply those finding rising car costs a strain; it also affects people who cannot afford a car at all, or who do not have access to a car for other reasons, and for whom the available public transport may be inadequate or costly. Government should consider how best to identify and assess transport needs and outcomes, before evaluating options for addressing the problem.

ACCESS DENIED - Transport poverty in Wales discusses some of the far reaching impacts of transport poverty on people’s lives.

Participation Poverty

Children and young people in Wales should be able to exercise their right to participate fully in society and in all matters affecting them. Children from poor families often feel left out of activities others enjoy. This can be even more acute for disabled and ethnic minority children. The Welsh Assembly Government's plans are set out in the document: "Children and Young People: Rights to Action".

The Participation Workers Network Wales (PWNW) has more information on issues relating to participation poverty in Wales. The PWNW is a free service for supporting practitioners and organisations to promote participation through their work with children and young people.

Other Terms

• Severe Child Poverty
• Persistent Poverty
• Costs of child poverty by local authority area
• Groups most at risk of falling into a cycle of poverty
• Policy and strategic context of child poverty in Wales