Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of housing costs on the level of child poverty; and if he will make a statement.

The Department looks at rates of child poverty both before and after housing costs. Absolute child poverty after housing costs has reduced from 28% in 2009/10 to 26% in 2017/18. However, this is higher than the absolute child poverty rate before housing costs which was 18% in 2017/18, suggesting that housing costs have an effect on rates of children in low income households.