Section 2: Child Poverty

Important Information for 2023 Statistics

Please be advised: due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data release for 2021/22  remains significantly reduced, and less reliable than seen in previous years (full explanation available here).

Due to this, it will not be possible to make year on year comparisons, or to draw conclusions about recent poverty trends. It is therefore recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate of poverty levels only.

Understanding each measure of Child Poverty

In 2016, the Welfare Reform and Work Act abolished the Child Poverty Act, including the targets to reduce poverty and the measure of poverty based on family income. The government is now required only to report to parliament on the number of children living in workless households, and educational outcomes at GCSE level. However, after a campaign by the Child Poverty Action Group, the government agreed to commit to regularly publishing data on the number of children in poverty. The Poverty Fact Book includes the following measures for Child Poverty:

• Relative Child Poverty UK DWP official measure for the UK, before and after housing costs
• Absolute Child Poverty UK DWP official measure for the UK, before and after housing costs
• Leeds Child Poverty HMRC & DWP official Local Measure, before housing costs

The headline figure for Child Poverty is the DWP’s Child Poverty, after housing costs are deducted from income. The DWP and HMRC have now combined their figures to produce one official local estimate for child poverty.

Child Poverty in the UK – Relative Child Poverty

The proportion of children living in households where income is less than 60% of median household income

Table 2.1

Latest figures show 2.9 million children experienced relative poverty before housing costs were deducted (BHC) during 2021/22 (20% of children in the UK).
Looking at relative poverty figures after housing costs (AHC) are deducted from income, there were 4.2 million children in relative poverty 2021/22 (29% of children in the UK).

REMINDER: Caution is advised in making the year-on-year comparisons after 2019/20.  This is due to the smaller sample sizes and differing collection methods carried out for surveys in 2020/21 and 2021/22. It is recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate, rather than for trend analysis or as an indicator of poverty levels falling/median incomes increasing etc.

Child Poverty in the UK – Absolute Child Poverty

The proportion of children living in households where income is less than 60 per cent of median household income in 2010/11 uprated by CPI inflation.

Table 2.2

Latest figures show 2.2 million children experienced absolute poverty during 2021/22 before housing costs (BHC) were deducted from income (16% of children in the UK).
Looking at absolute poverty figures after housing costs (AHC) are deducted from income, there were 3.3 million children in absolute poverty AHC during 2021/22 (23% of children in the UK).

REMINDER: Caution is advised in making the year-on-year comparisons after 2019/20.  This is due to the smaller sample sizes and differing collection methods carried out for surveys in 2020/21 and 2021/22. It is recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate, rather than for trend analysis or as an indicator of poverty levels falling/median incomes increasing etc.

Children in working and workless households in relative poverty (UK estimates)

Table 2.3:

The above table shows the total number of all children in the UK by economic status, as well as the number and percentage of children in poverty in each economic status group.
A higher percentage of children in workless families are in poverty, compared to children in families where at least one adult is in work. However, when looking at the numbers, there are more children in poverty from households where at least one adult is in work.
In 2021/22, 60.7% of all children in workless families were in relative poverty AHC (affecting an estimated 1.2m children). In contrast, 24% of all children with at least one adult in work were in relative poverty (affecting an estimated 3m children).

Additional analysis of children in poverty based on household economic status:

Of the 2.9m children in poverty BHC, 2m are from a household with at least one adult in work, equating to 67%. 900,000 are from a household with no adults in work, equating to 33%.

Of the 4.2m children in poverty AHC, 3m of those are from a household with at least one adult in work, equating to 71%. 1.2m are from a household with no adults in work, equating to 29%.

This means that based on all children in poverty, both a higher number and percentage of children are from households where at least one adult is in work.

REMINDER: Caution is advised in making the year-on-year comparisons after 2019/20.  This is due to the smaller sample sizes and differing collection methods carried out for surveys in 2020/21 and 2021/22. It is recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate, rather than for trend analysis or as an indicator of poverty levels falling/median incomes increasing etc.

Child Poverty in Leeds : HMRC and DWP combined Local Measure – Children in Low-Income Families

The Children in Low-Income Families data contains annual official statistics on the number of children under 16 living in Relative and Absolute low income families BHC, by local area across the United Kingdom. These statistics replace earlier Official Statistics previously published by DWP (Children in out-of-work benefit households) and HMRC (Personal tax credits: Children in low-income families local measure). The new statistics provide a more coherent picture of children under 16 living in low income families by local area BHC.

Important Information: The Children in low income families: local area statistics (HMRC & DWP) data release for 2021/22 has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to this, it is not possible to make comparisons with data releases for other years, or to draw conclusions about recent poverty trends. It is therefore recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate of poverty levels only.

Table 2.4:

Latest figures show 2.5 million children under 16 were living in relative low income families BHC in 2021/22 UK, equal to 20% in 2021/22. In Leeds, 22% of children, (32,933) were living in relative low income families BHC.

REMINDER: Caution is advised in making the year-on-year comparisons after 2019/20.  This is due to the smaller sample sizes and differing collection methods carried out for surveys in 2020/21 and 2021/22. It is recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate, rather than for trend analysis or as an indicator of poverty levels falling/median incomes increasing etc.

Table 2.5:

Latest figures show 1.9 million children under 16 were living in absolute low income families BHC in 2021/22 UK, equal to 15%. In Leeds, 17% of children, (25,673) were living in absolute low income families BHC in 2021/22.

REMINDER: Caution is advised in making the year-on-year comparisons after 2019/20.  This is due to the smaller sample sizes and differing collection methods carried out for surveys in 2020/21 and 2021/22. It is recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate, rather than for trend analysis or as an indicator of poverty levels falling/median incomes increasing etc.

Child Poverty in Leeds, After Housing Cost, Local Estimate

Every year the End Child Poverty Coalition, together with the Centre for Research in Social Policy at Loughborough University, publishes data on the number of children living in relative poverty after housing costs are deducted from income, for each Local Authority across the UK.

This measure is useful to look at alongside official Government estimates  because it provides an estimate for Leeds for children under 20, in relative poverty after housing costs.  This after housing cost measure is not published for local areas by Government as an official measure because there is no way of directly looking at AHC incomes from information held by the tax and benefit authorities, since only some people (notably those claiming Housing Benefit or the rent element of Universal Credit) need to report housing costs).

Table 2.6:

This research uses the official poverty data from the DWP and HMRC alongside further administrative data and household surveys to estimate local area housing impacts. The research provides local child poverty estimates after housing costs to highlight the disposable income that families have available to meet their living costs. Latest figures show 55,780 children under 20 were living in relative poverty AHC in 2021/22, equal to 31.3% of children in Leeds, above the official national rate produced by the DWP of 29%

REMINDER: Caution is advised in making the year-on-year comparisons after 2019/20.  This is due to the smaller sample sizes and differing collection methods carried out for surveys in 2020/21 and 2021/22. It is recommended that poverty data for 2021/22 is instead viewed as a point in time estimate, rather than for trend analysis or as an indicator of poverty levels falling/median incomes increasing etc.

Free School Meals

The data in this table is a total of all school types – i.e. for state funded primary, secondary, special schools, Pupil Referral Units and Alternative Provision Academies and Free Schools. The data excludes all infant children who receive universal free school meals regardless of income.

Table 2.7

In January 2023, 34,169  (26.0%) of pupils in Leeds were eligible and claiming a free school meal, up 1,837 pupils (up 1.1 percentage points) on the previous year. Nationally 22.3% of all pupils were eligible and claiming, up 1.2 percentage points.

Further information

Child Poverty

Relative and Absolute Child Poverty UK DWP official measure for the UK

The DWP’s Household Below Average Income (HBAI) report contains the official headline measure for all poverty figures for the UK, in particular the number of children in low-income families at a national level.

The HBAI is based on data from the Family Resources Survey in which the sample sizes are insufficient for useful analysis at the local level. In HBAI, median household income is calculated using the entire income distribution. The HBAI low-income threshold is then calculated by taking 60 per cent of this median.

The measure represents dependent children under the age of 20. A dependent child is defined as an individual aged under 16 or an individual aged 16 to 19 years who is:

• not married nor in a Civil Partnership nor living with a partner; and
• living with parents; and
• in full-time non-advanced education or in unwaged government training

HMRC and DWP Combined Measure – Children in low income families measure

In 2020 the DWP & HMRC first released joint statistics ‘Children in low income families’. This local measure uses mid year estimates for population figures (ONS) and provides a picture of children in low income families for both Relative and Absolute measures, but only Before Housing Costs (BHC).

A family must have claimed one or more of Universal Credit, Tax Credits or Housing Benefit at any point in the year to be classed as low income in these statistics.
The count of children refers to the age of the child at 31 March of each year.

This measure only publishes the rate and number of children aged under 16 years. The estimate number of children aged 0-19 years is published online (Stat xplore), however rates for all children (aged 0 to 19years) have not been produced as an undetermined proportion of 16 to 19 year olds would not be treated as children for the purposes of these statistics.

Free School Meals

Free School Meals – in England, children in state-funded schools were entitled to receive free school meals if a parent or carer were in receipt of any of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided they were not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and had an annual gross income of no more than £16,190, as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs)
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get).

Entitlement to free school meals is determined by the receipt of income-related benefits. Since 1 April 2018, transitional protections have been in place which will continue to be in place during the roll out of Universal Credit. This has meant that pupils eligible for free school meals on or after 1 April 2018 retain their free school meals eligibility even if their circumstances change. The DfE state that this has been the main driver in the increase in the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals as pupils continue to become eligible but fewer pupils stop being eligible.