Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment she has made of the levels of (a) poverty and (b) child poverty in York.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, including by increasing the living wage, and by spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21. This included around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.

We also introduced the Covid Winter Grant and Covid Local Support Grant, together totalling £269m administered by local authorities in England to help the most vulnerable children and families stay warm and well fed. For the City of York Council this means funding of £659,659.

National Statistics on the number and percentage of children in low income are published annually in the “Households Below Average Income” publication. Data for York is unavailable due to insufficient sample size, however, data for the Yorkshire and Humber region is available.

Latest statistics for the levels of low income for people in Yorkshire and the Humber can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020, “population-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables” in table 3.17ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in table 3.19ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).

Latest statistics for the levels of low income for children in Yorkshire and the Humber can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/households-below-average-income-for-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2020, , “children-hbai-timeseries-1994-95-2019-20-tables” in table 4.16ts (relative low income, before and after housing costs) and in table 4.22ts (absolute low income, before and after housing costs).