This Government's policies have been highly effective in tackling pensioner poverty.
Between 1996-97 and 2005-06 the proportion of pensioners in relative income poverty has fallen by over a third, with over one million older people being lifted out of relative income poverty.
Relative income poverty is measured as household income net of taxes and housing costs below 60 per cent. contemporary median income. In 2005-06 this stood at the equivalent of £108 for a single pensioner. This is a widely recognised, longstanding definition used for understanding low income pensioners.
Between 1996-97 and 2005-06 the proportion of pensioners living in absolute income poverty has fallen by around three quarters, with more than 2 million older people lifted out of absolute poverty. Absolute income poverty is measured as household income net of taxes and housing costs below 60 per cent. contemporary median income in 1998-99. In 2005-06 this stood at the equivalent of £88 per week for a single pensioner. This is also a widely recognised, longstanding definition used for understanding low income pensioners.
£217.80 is not an appropriate benchmark to indicate the numbers of pensioners living in low income poverty.
The following table shows the number of pensioner units with income below £217.80 (deflated to the respective year's prices) based on both gross income and net income (before taking into account housing costs).
The number of pensioners receiving an income of £217.80 per week or less in Milton Keynes is not available. The closest available information is for pensioner units in the south east region, based on combining three year's data from 2003-04 to 2005-06.
Pensioner units with income below £217.80 (deflated to respective year's prices), averaged over the years 2003-04 to 2005-06Gross incomeNet income South East300,000400,000 England and Wales2,400,0003,000,000 Notes: 1. Gross income is income from all sources received by the pensioner unit, including income from social security benefits, earnings from employment, any private pension, and tax credits. 2. Net income before housing costs is gross income less income tax payments, national insurance contributions, contributions to occupational and private pension schemes, local taxes, maintenance and child support payments, and parental contributions to children living away from home. 3. Based on survey data and as such subject to a degree of sampling and non sampling error. 4. All figures are rounded to the nearest 100,000. 5. Due to the small sample sizes involved, three year's data have been combined and the threshold has been deflated to the appropriate year's prices. 6. A pensioner unit is either a single person over pension age or a couple in which at least one person is over pension age.
For reference, on average over the three year period there were 1,100,000 pensioner units in the south east and 7,100,000 in England and Wales.