Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many working households in (a) Ashfield constituency, (b) the East Midlands and (c) the UK were classed as being in poverty in the most recent year for which data is available and in each of the two previous years.

Relative low income is used as a proxy for poverty.

The number of working households in relative low income is not available for Ashfield. This is because survey sample sizes are too small to support the production of robust estimates at this geography.

The average number of working households classed as being in relative low income in the East Midlands is 100,000 for the latest 3 -year period 2012/13 - 2014/15. This was also 100,000 in 2011/12 - 2013/14 and 100,000 in 2010/11 - 2012/13.

The average number of working households classed as being in relative low income in the United Kingdom is 1.7 million for the latest 3-year period 2012/13 - 2014/15. This was 1.5 million in 2011/12 - 2013/14 and 1.4 million in 2010/11 - 2012/13.

It continues to be clear that work is the best route out of poverty. In 2014/15 - 8% of children in households where all adults were working were in relative low income, compared with 47% in workless households.