Poverty: Children
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what weight is given to the level of (a) private rented sector rents and (b) council tax in the statistical determination of child poverty.
Answered by Dame Diana Johnson
The UK's headline child poverty statistics are provided via the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) statistics publication: Households below average income (HBAI) statistics - GOV.UK. Children are defined as being in income-based poverty if the net income of their household is below 60% of median household income. Household incomes are adjusted by a process called equivalisation so that different household sizes and compositions can be compared.
Council tax liability is subtracted in full from household income in a similar way to other taxes when calculating income before housing costs (BHC). Private rented sector rents are then subtracted in full from BHC income to calculate income after housing costs (AHC). The headline income-based measure of poverty is relative low income after housing costs (AHC) i.e. a child is in relative poverty AHC if the AHC income of their household is below 60% of the median for the year in question.
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