To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how his Department defines material deprivation; and whether this definition has changed since 1997. (185940)

Our material deprivation measure is designed to be a wider measure of families' living standards.

We define it as the number of children living in households suffering a combination of relative low income (70 per cent. of contemporary median) and material deprivation.

The available material deprivation figures and details of the methodology can be found in 'PSA Delivery Agreement 9: Halve the number of children in poverty by 2010-11, on the way to eradicating child poverty by 2020', available on the HM Treasury website. The measure was first set out in detail in CSR 2007 and has not changed.