The information on the number and proportion of children who were in poverty and whose parents were out of work is shown in the following table.
Number (million) Proportion (percentage) 2002-03 1.6 64 2003-04 1.5 61 2004-05 1.4 58 2005-06 1.4 58 2006-07 1.4 61 Notes: 1. These statistics are based on households below average income, sourced from the Family Resources Survey and Low Income Dynamics data, sourced from the British Household Panel Survey. 2. Small changes should be treated with caution as these will be affected by sampling error and variability in non-response. 3. The reference period for households below average income figures is single financial years. 4. The income measures used to derive the estimates shown employ the same methodology as the Department for Work and Pensions publication ‘Households Below Average Income’ series, which uses net disposable household income, adjusted (or “equivalised”) for household size and composition, as an income measure as a proxy for standard of living. 5. For the households below average income series, incomes have been equivalised using OECD equalisation factors. 6. Numbers of children have been rounded to the nearest 100,000 children and proportions have been rounded to the nearest per cent. 7. Children have been counted as being in workless families where they are in lone parent families where the parent does not work or in couple families where both parents do not work. 8. Parents have been counted as being of working age if at least one is of working age (i.e. 64 or below for men, 59 or below for women). Source: Households Below Average Income
Information on the number and proportion of children who had moved out of poverty as a result of their parents moving into work is not available. Poverty is a complex and multidimensional issue with many different factors acting at the same time in moving individuals into or out of poverty.
The risk of a child being in a low income household in the United Kingdom in 2006-07 where one or more adult works is much lower at 14 per cent. than for children in workless families, where the equivalent proportion is 61 per cent. as shown in the table. Data from the Low Income Dynamics publication illustrate that an increase in the number of workers or full-time workers in a family with children greatly increases the likelihood of that household moving out of low income. The Low Income Dynamics paper is available in the Library.