Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

Her Majesty's Government how they define, monitor and assess (1) poverty, and (2) the root causes of poverty, in the UK.

This Government is committed to an approach that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. Through Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families, published on 4 April, it published its evidence and analysis on the root causes of disadvantage and the impact they can have on children’s lives. It also set out nine national indicators and underlying measures to track progress in tackling these disadvantages and to drive continued action on improving outcomes for disadvantaged children and families, now and in the future.

The most commonly used measure of poverty is ‘relative low-income’. Estimates on the number and proportion of people in low income are published annually in the ‘Households Below Average Income’ series. It measures how the incomes of one group compare to median incomes in the UK, with those incomes below 60 per cent of the median classified as being in relative low-income.

For more details on the definitions of low income please see the latest Households Below Average Income report attached.