Estimates of poverty for both pensioners and children are published in the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series. These figures only allow a breakdown of the overall numbers in poverty at Government office region level. Therefore, information is not available for the Nottingham North constituency.
Estimates of the number of pensioners and children who have been lifted out of poverty are not available, as each year different households are surveyed to produce low income statistics in the Households Below Average Income series. However, information is available about the net change in the number of pensioners and children with incomes below 60 per cent. of contemporary median income over the period requested for the East Midlands Government office region.
The Government use a basket of three key thresholds of income, after housing costs, to measure pensioner poverty. The most commonly used poverty figures relate to those with incomes below 60 per cent. of contemporary household median income after housing costs.
The latest information for the East Midlands Government office region is based on three-year averages and changes are rounded to the nearest 100,000. It shows that the number of pensioners in poverty in the East Midlands fell by 100,000 between 1997-98 to 1999-2000 and 2005-06 to 2007-08.
The public service agreement to halve child poverty by 2010-11 on the way to eradicating it by 2020 uses a headline indicator of the proportion of children in households with an income below 60 per cent. of contemporary household median income before housing costs.
The latest information for the East Midlands Government office region is based on three-year averages and changes are rounded to the nearest 100,000. It shows that the number of children in poverty remained at the same level between 1997-98 to 1999-2000 and 2005-06 to 2007-08.
A local child poverty indicator—including constituency level information—has been developed to try and replicate this national measure as closely as possible. It captures the number and proportion of children in families in receipt of out of work benefits, or in receipt of tax credits where their reported income is less than 60 per cent. of median income. Details can be found via the HMRC website at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/child_poverty.htm
Notes:
1. These statistics are based on Households Below Average Income (HBAI) data, sourced from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). The reference period for FRS figures is single financial years. Three sample years have been combined for regional statistics as single year estimates are subject to volatility.
2. Small changes in estimates from year to year, particularly at the bottom of the income distribution, may not be significant in view of data uncertainties.
3. Changes between periods are calculated based on unrounded figures and then rounded to the nearest 100,000. Therefore they may differ from the difference between the rounded figures available in the Households Below Average Income publication.