Poverty
(asked on 21st March 2022) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Households Below Average Income statistics, how many households were categorised as living in poverty after housing costs in each year since 2000.
Answered by
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Table 1: Households in poverty after housing costs
| Relative Poverty AHC (millions) | Relative Poverty AHC (percentage) | Absolute Poverty AHC (millions) | Absolute Poverty AHC (percentage) |
2000/2001* | 5.9 | 24.4% | 7.4 | 30.3% |
2001/2002* | 5.7 | 23.7% | 6.6 | 27.2% |
2002/2003 | 5.7 | 22.9% | 6.4 | 25.8% |
2003/2004 | 5.4 | 21.8% | 5.9 | 23.7% |
2004/2005 | 5.1 | 20.5% | 5.4 | 21.6% |
2005/2006 | 5.3 | 21.0% | 5.5 | 21.7% |
2006/2007 | 5.6 | 22.2% | 5.6 | 22.1% |
2007/2008 | 5.6 | 22.0% | 5.5 | 21.5% |
2008/2009 | 5.6 | 21.6% | 5.5 | 21.3% |
2009/2010 | 5.7 | 21.9% | 5.5 | 21.2% |
2010/2011 | 5.5 | 21.0% | 5.5 | 21.0% |
2011/2012 | 5.6 | 21.0% | 5.8 | 21.8% |
2012/2013 | 5.6 | 21.0% | 5.9 | 22.0% |
2013/2014 | 5.7 | 21.1% | 5.9 | 21.6% |
2014/2015 | 5.8 | 21.3% | 5.6 | 20.4% |
2015/2016 | 6.0 | 21.8% | 5.5 | 20.0% |
2016/2017 | 6.3 | 22.5% | 5.6 | 20.0% |
2017/2018 | 6.0 | 21.9% | 5.4 | 19.4% |
2018/2019 | 6.1 | 21.8% | 5.4 | 19.6% |
2019/2020 | 6.3 | 22.3% | 5.1 | 18.2% |
*Data before 2002/2003 is for Great Britain. Data from 2002/2003 onwards is for the United Kingdom.
This government prefers to look at absolute poverty over relative poverty as relative poverty can provide counter-intuitive results. Relative poverty is likely to fall during recessions, due to falling median incomes. Under this measure, poverty can decrease even if people are getting poorer. The absolute poverty line is fixed in real terms, so will only ever worsen if people are getting poorer, and only ever improve if people are getting richer.