Section : Income Support



Section 9: Children in Relative Poverty

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Contents of this section

Chart 1: Children in Poverty, 1998/99 to 2012/13, UK

Chart 2: Percentage of Children in Relative Poverty (BHC), Scotland

Chart 3: Children in Relative Poverty by Local Authority, Scotland, 2012

Table 1: Percentage of Children in Poverty in Local Authority Areas in Scotland, 2012

Table 2: Projections of Children Poverty Rates in Scotland, as produced by the Institute of Fiscal Studies

Background

Poverty is defined relative to median income: that income below and above which 50% of households lie. Clearly, therefore, if there is an upward trend in income, the median rises. And if there is a downward trend in income, the median falls.

Relative poverty is defined as being below 60% of median income. In table 2 below, absolute poverty is defined as being in households where the income is 60% of 2010/11 income in real terms. In 2012/13, median income itself fell, and this was the third consecutive annual fall in median income in Scotland. Mainly as a result of this fall in median income, the numbers of children in relative poverty fell. The appearance of improvement was therefore an artefact of the way official statistics on poverty are presented.

Statistics can be presented using income figures before housing costs are taking into account, and also using income figures after housing costs are taken into account.

Main Points

Child poverty in the UK and in Scotland reached very high levels in the 1980s and 1990s. A major drive to cut child poverty using employment policies, tax, and benefits tools, during the Labour government, substantially reduced child poverty as seen in Charts 1 and 2 below. During this period, however, UK debt, both government and personal, soared.

The financial crisis, beginning in 2008, reduced the tax take of the UK government of 2008, reduced income levels, and, as time has worn on, has tightened up considerably on benefits. At the same time, there has been an expansion of zero hour contracts, pay freezes in the public sector, and split shift working.

The effect on trends in child poverty was not immediately apparent for two reasons: first, benefits payments in the first few years of the crisis were not as badly affected as the incomes of those in work, and secondly, although benefits payments are now being considerably tightened, median income has itself fallen.

Poverty in Scotland increased in 2012/13. While the rate of poverty increased for all groups, (that is, pensioners, those of working age, and children), the largest increase was in the rate of child poverty. In 2012/13, 19% of all children in Scotland were living in relative poverty, an increase from 15% the previous year: that is, a rise over the year from 150,000 to 180,000. Note that these figures are for relative poverty: that is, poverty relative to median income.

Many of these children are living in households where at least one adult was in employment.

In total, in 2012/13, 59% of children in relative poverty in Scotland were in families where at least one adult was in work: that is, 110,000 children: and the incidence of in-work poverty has been increasing.

(Scottish Government, Poverty and income inequality in Scotland: 2012/13, July 2014).

The most recent detailed data on child poverty are from the Campaign to End Child Poverty, from mid-2012. as shown in the table below, Glasgow was the worst affected local authority with 33.4% of children living in poverty: within it, the worst areas were the Springburn (61%) and Calton (49%) wards.

(Loughborough University).

Clackmannanshire, West Dunbartonshire, Dundee, East Ayrshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, and North Lanarkshire all had more than 1 in 5 children living in relative poverty in 2012.

Note that there was a drop in overall relative poverty levels between 2009-10 and 2010-11, mainly driven by a fall in median household incomes over this time period.

Scotland is one of the better performing countries in the UK with regard to relative child poverty.

Chart 1: Children in poverty 1998/99 to 2012/13, UK

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Source: DWP, Households Below Average Income, July 2014.

(BHC: Before Housing Costs).

Chart 2

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Chart 3

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Table 1 Percentage of Children in Relative Poverty in Local Authority Areas in Scotland, 2012

|Local Authority |Percentage children|

| |in poverty |

| | |

|Aberdeen City |15.6% |

|Aberdeenshire |8.8% |

|Angus |14.4% |

|Argyll and Bute |13.5% |

|Scottish Borders |13.1% |

|Clackmannanshire |22.7% |

|West Dunbartonshire |25.3% |

|Dumfries and Galloway |16.5% |

|Dundee City |26.1% |

|East Ayrshire |22.1% |

|East Dunbartonshire |10.3% |

|East Lothian |14.0% |

|East Renfrewshire |9.9% |

|Edinburgh, City of |18.5% |

|Falkirk |17.1% |

|Fife |19.7% |

|Glasgow City |33.4% |

|Highland |14.5% |

|Inverclyde |23.6% |

|Midlothian |17.6% |

|Moray |12.1% |

|North Ayrshire |24.7% |

|North Lanarkshire |21.4% |

|Orkney Islands |8.2% |

|Perth and Kinross |11.1% |

|Renfrewshire |18.9% |

|Shetland Islands |7.0% |

|South Ayrshire |18.3% |

|South Lanarkshire |17.8% |

|Stirling |13.9% |

|West Lothian |17.7% |

|Eilean Siar |10.5% |

Table 2: Projections of Children Poverty Rates in Scotland, as produced by the Institute of Fiscal Studies

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Data Sources

Table 2 from Table B.2 on Projections of income poverty rates in Scotland in “Child and Working-Age Poverty in Northern Ireland from 2010 to 2020”, published 2013.

All other data from Department of Work and Pensions.

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