Children (Poor Households)

                    The text on this page has been created from Hansard archive content, it may contain typographical errors.
                

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many children are living in households that fall in each of the lowest three deciles of the distribution of equivalised incomes before housing costs; how many are living in lone parent households; and how many are living in households headed by a couple. [32410]

The information is set out in the table.

Number of children in households
millions
	Number of in lone parent families	Number of children in two parent families	All children
Decile 1 (lowest)	0.3	1.2	1.6
Decile 2	0.8	0.9	1.7
Decile 3	0.7	0.9	1.6
All (Deciles 1–10)	2.8	9.8	12.7

Notes:

1. Figures are for 1995–96.

2. The data comes from the Department's Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series, based on the Family Resources Survey (FRS) and covering Great Britain. The FRS data were used to achieve a large enough sample size to provide more robust information. All results are subject to sampling error, and numbers may not sum due to rounding.

3. The income measure used is weekly net (disposable) equivalised income. The definition of income used follows that in the published HBAI series for FRS based results.

4. Figures include 0.6 million children in the bottom three deciles in families classified as self-employed; the reported income of these families may not be an accurate guide to their living standards. Comparisons with household expenditure also suggests that households in the bottom income decile may not have the lowest living standards.

Source:

Households Below Average Income (HBAI).

Volume 308: debated on Tuesday 10 March 1998