Children in poverty: Measurement and targets

Work and Pensions Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 12 Jan 2021 Closed: 2 Feb 2022 Parliament page
This inquiry is looking at children in poverty. This is a complex subject, so the Committee’s work will be in several parts. For the first part of the inquiry, we are interested in finding out: - how child poverty can most accurately be measured and defined - what the impact … Read more
22 Recommendations
15 Conclusions
1 Report
5 Oral sessions
1 Letter
5 Events
Activity timeline 8 events
6 Dec
2021
Report published
22 Sep
2021
Report published
16 Jul
2021
Correspondence
23 Jun
2021
Oral evidence
26 May
2021
Oral evidence
12 May
2021
Oral evidence
14 Apr
2021
Oral evidence
3 Mar
2021
Oral evidence
Oral evidence sessions 5 sessions
23 Jun 2021
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Work and Pensions Committee
Donna Ward · Department for Work and Pensions Elaine Squires · Department for Work and Pensions Will Quince MP · Department for Education
26 May 2021
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Work and Pensions
Anne Longfield Bruce Adamson Ed Humpherson · UK Statistics Authority Mike Brewer · Resolution Foundation Robert Joyce · Institute for Fiscal Studies The Baroness Stroud · Social Metrics Commission
12 May 2021
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Work and Pensions
Charlotte Ramsden · Association of Directors of Children’s Services Gavin Mullin · Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council Peter Tutton · StepChange Sabine Goodwin · Independent Food Aid Network Una Summerson · Contact-for families with disabled children Will Tuckley · London Borough of Tower Hamlets
14 Apr 2021
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Work and Pensions Committee
Charlotte McDonough · Save the Children Professor David Taylor-Robinson · University of Liverpool Professor Paul Bywaters · University of Huddersfield Rebecca Jacques · Children’s Society Sophie Howes · Child Poverty Action Group Yasmin Rehman · Juno Women’s Aid
3 Mar 2021
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Work and Pensions Committee
Dr Jose Manuel Roche · University of Oxford Dr Keetie Roelen · Institute of Development Studies Dr Kitty Stewart · London School of Economics & Political Science Edward Davies · Centre for Social Justice Helen Barnard · The Trussell Trust
Title HC No. Published Items Response
Third Report - Children in poverty: Measurement and targets HC 188 22 Sep 2021 37 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
9 results
Clear
5 Recommendation Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
DWP’s analysis of the drivers of child income poverty from 2014 concluded that a key...
DWP’s analysis of the drivers of child income poverty from 2014 concluded that a key factor was the quantity and quality of paid work in families. Since this analysis, the labour market has continued to evolve and more children in … Read more
Government Response
The government stated that tackling child poverty is a cross-government priority and mentioned the ONS is leading the development of an interactive tool for income and earnings statistics, but did not commit DWP to revisit its own analysis as requested.
Department for Work and Pensions
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10 Conclusion Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
The Government legislated for the statutory monitoring of worklessness and educational attainment indicators in the...
The Government legislated for the statutory monitoring of worklessness and educational attainment indicators in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. It reports performance against these indicators as part of a wider set of ‘Helping Workless Families’ indicators. The Government … Read more
Government Response
The government response did not address the committee's conclusion regarding worklessness and educational attainment indicators not being a substitute for measuring poverty, instead providing boilerplate text about existing publications and monitoring.
Department for Work and Pensions
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11 Recommendation Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions broadens the scope of its ‘Helping...
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions broadens the scope of its ‘Helping workless families indicators’ to measure the quantity and quality of work in families and communities, and the quality of family support so that they better … Read more
Government Response
The government's response focuses on ongoing research into data matching and analysis programmes for child income poverty and engagement with local authorities regarding Universal Credit data sharing, which does not address broadening the scope of 'Helping workless families indicators'.
Department for Work and Pensions
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15 Recommendation Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
DWP should set out clearly, in response to this report, what work it now plans...
DWP should set out clearly, in response to this report, what work it now plans to do on the development of supplementary experimental statistics using the SMC’s methodology and a timescale for completing this work. It should also explain how … Read more
Government Response
The government's response discusses general cross-government efforts and ONS development of an interactive tool, but does not set out DWP's plans for supplementary experimental statistics or explain how the Secretary of State's focus will inform poverty measurement.
Department for Work and Pensions
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16 Conclusion Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
The UK can learn from international approaches to poverty measurement, including from those countries and...
The UK can learn from international approaches to poverty measurement, including from those countries and organisations which have developed multidimensional measurement approaches that bring together measures of income poverty and wider social deprivations. Some multidimensional approaches blend measures of income … Read more
Government Response
The government response provided a general statement about its commitment to tackling poverty, existing reporting mechanisms, and focus on work, but did not address the committee's specific observations regarding international measurement approaches or the dangers of a single poverty index.
Department for Work and Pensions
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22 Recommendation Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the delay in publishing poverty data through DWP’s...
The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the delay in publishing poverty data through DWP’s ‘Households Below Average Income’ statistics. DWP and HMRC have a wealth of administrative data on benefits, tax and earnings. DWP can make better use of … Read more
Government Response
The government provides a general statement about cross-government poverty efforts and mentions the ONS is developing an interactive tool, but does not commit DWP to using its administrative data to produce 'closer to real-time' child poverty information.
Department for Work and Pensions
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23 Recommendation Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
Working with HMRC and other UK producers of income statistics, DWP should develop a dashboard...
Working with HMRC and other UK producers of income statistics, DWP should develop a dashboard of child income-related poverty ‘lead’ indicators which are closer to real time and supplement existing survey data sources. DWP should publish this data as part … Read more
Government Response
The government noted that tackling child poverty is a cross-government priority and mentioned the ONS is developing an interactive tool for income and earnings statistics, but did not commit DWP to develop or publish a specific dashboard of child income-related poverty indicators.
Department for Work and Pensions
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25 Recommendation Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
DWP should commission research examining, in depth, the impacts of the pandemic on children living...
DWP should commission research examining, in depth, the impacts of the pandemic on children living in families in low income. It should publish the results of this 54 Children in poverty: Measurement and targets analysis alongside its March 2022 Households … Read more
Government Response
The government did not commit to commissioning new research examining the pandemic's impacts on low-income children or publishing its results. It noted DHSC is leading the longer-term project and will coordinate publication decisions, effectively redirecting part of the recommendation.
Department for Work and Pensions
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30 Conclusion Not Addressed
Third Report - Children in poverty…
Gaps in data on inescapable costs that households face, including those associated with disability and...
Gaps in data on inescapable costs that households face, including those associated with disability and debt, reduce the accuracy of data about who is in poverty. The Social Metrics Commission has shown leadership in highlighting these matters but is reliant … Read more
Government Response
The government response outlined existing data collected by the Family Resources Survey and plans to introduce new questions on debt repayments, but did not directly address the committee's conclusion about the impact of data gaps on poverty measurement accuracy or the need for significant DWP commitment.
Department for Work and Pensions
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Government Response AI assessment · 37 of 22 classified
Accepted 8
Accepted in Part 1
Acknowledged 8
Deferred 9
Not Addressed 9
Rejected 2
Total 22 recs + 15 conclusions
Correspondence 1 letter
16 Jul 2021 Correspondence with Minister for Welfare Delivery - follow up on oral evidence on Children in poverty: Measurements and targets
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