Project summaries
The New Policy Institute has produced its fourth annual report of indicators of poverty and social exclusion. The data is the most comprehensive and up-to-date available, with the latest year being 2000 or 2001 depending on data availability.
| Indicator | Trends over time | |
|---|---|---|
| Over the medium term | Over latest year of available data | |
| Income | ||
| 1. Gap between low and median income | = | = |
| 2. Individuals with low income (below 60% of median income) | = | + |
| 3. Intensity of low income (below 50% of median income) | = | + |
| 4. In receipt of means tested benefits or tax credits (working age only) | + | + |
| 5. Long term recipients of benefits (all ages) | + | = |
| 6. Spells of low income (at least 2 years in 3 on a low income) | = | = |
| 7. The location of low income | N/a | N/a |
| Children | ||
| 8. Children in workless households | + | + |
| 9. Children in low income households (below 60% of median income) | = | + |
| 10. Low birthweight babies (%) | = | + |
| 11. Accidental deaths | + | + |
| 12. Pupils gaining no GCSE above Grade D | + | + |
| 13. Permanently excluded from school | + | + |
| 14. Children whose parents divorce | + | + |
| 15. Births to girls conceiving under age 16 | = | + |
| 16. Children (10-16) in young offenders institutions | - | - |
| Young adults | ||
| 17. Unemployed (16-24) | + | + |
| 18. On low rates of pay (16-21) | = | = |
| 19. Not in education, training or work (16-18) | = | - |
| 20. Problem drug abuse (15-24) | - | = |
| 21. Suicide (15-24) | + | + |
| 22. Without a basic qualification (19 year olds) | + | + |
| 23. With a criminal record (18-20) | = | + |
| Adults aged 25 to retirement | ||
| 24. Individuals without paid work who to have work | + | + |
| 25. Households without work for two years or more | = | = |
| 26. On low rates of pay | + | = |
| 27. Insecure at work | = | = |
| 28. Without access to training | = | = |
| 29. Comparative premature death rates | = | + |
| 30. Obesity | - | - |
| 31. Long standing illness or disability (45-64) | = | = |
| 32. At risk of developing mental illness | = | + |
| Older people | ||
| 33. Pensioners with no private income | = | + |
| 34. Spending on essentials | = | = |
| 35. Excess winter deaths | - | - |
| 36. Long standing illness or disability | = | = |
| 37. Anxiety (feeling unsafe out at night) | = | = |
| 38. Help from social services to live at home (%) | - | - |
| 39. Without a telephone | + | = |
| Community | ||
| 40. Non participation in civic organisations | = | - |
| 41. Polarisation of work (%) | = | = |
| 42. Spending on travel | + | + |
| 43. Lacking a bank or building society account | = | - |
| 44. Burglary (number of burglaries) | + | + |
| 45. Without household insurance | + | = |
| 46. Dissatisfaction with local area (%) | = | = |
| 47. Without central heating | + | + |
| 48. Overcrowding | + | + |
| 49. Households in temporary accommodation | - | - |
| 50. Mortgage arrears | + | + |
The report is the fourth in an annual series, Monitoring poverty and social exclusion, with the indicators updated for an extra year's data. Most of the data is either 2001 or late 2000, the main exception being the data on income distribution for which the latest statistics are 1999/2000.
Whilst income is the focus of many of the indicators, they also cover a wide range of other subjects including health, education, work, and community. As in previous years, the indicators are grouped into six chapters, an initial chapter on income, four central chapters dividing the population by age (children, young adults, adults and older people), and a final chapter on communities. The findings are set out here in the same order.
The following is a summary of the findings in the report.
One of the preferred indicators of the extent of income poverty used by both the European Union and the UK Government is the number of people living in households with less than 60 per cent of median income. According to the latest official statistics - for the year April 1999 to March 2000, released in July 2001 - there were 13.3 million people below this threshold, compared with 13.4 million in 1998/99.
The number of people on low incomes has remained largely unchanged since the early 1990s, after doubling during the 1980s (see Figure 1). Although inequalities did not decrease during the 1990s, the real income of the poorest did increase slightly by about 1 per cent per annum (£1.50 per week).
The lack of change in the most recent year is disappointing, but perhaps not surprising. Although the Government now has a number of major policy initiatives in place for tackling income poverty, the working families tax credit was only just being introduced, the minimum income guarantee was not at a level which would move pensioners above the threshold, and many of those on the national minimum wage could still have remained below the threshold.
More than half of all lone parents lived on incomes below the '60 per cent of median income' threshold in 1999/2000. London had the highest proportion of poor people of any region in England, but also had the second highest proportion of rich people.
At 20 per cent of average earnings, levels of income support in the UK are at an historic low, down from 30 per cent in the early 1980s.
Children continue to be more likely than adults to live in low income households.
The Government claims that 1.2 million children were lifted out of poverty by the end of the last parliament (using the 'below 60 per cent of median income' measure). Given that numbers of children in households below 60 per cent of median income fell by 300,000 between 1996/97 and 1999/00, a net reduction of 1.2 million will only have been achieved if there were further falls of 900,000 in 2000/01. This will not be known until the official 2000/01 figures are published in July 2002.
The health indicators provide a mixed picture. While the number of accidental deaths of children has halved over the last decade (see Figure 2) and the number of births to girls conceiving before their 16th birthday has fallen by a fifth since its peak in 1996, the proportion of babies who are of low birth-weight has not changed over the last five years and rates of teenage conception in Britain remain much higher than elsewhere in Western Europe.
The proportion of 15-year-olds with no GCSEs above grade D fell by one-sixth during the 1990s and the proportion of 11-year-olds failing to achieve level 4 or above at key stage 2 in English and maths has fallen by a third since 1996. School exclusions also continue to fall sharply from their peak in 1996/97. But serious problems still remain: 150,000 pupils each year still fail to obtain any GCSEs above grade D and exclusion is still over four times as common for Black Caribbean pupils as for white pupils.
Finally, the number of children aged 10 to 16 in young offender institutions and secure units continues to rise, and is now more than 50 per cent higher than a decade ago.
The number of young adults who are unemployed (measured by the ILO definition) continues to fall and now stands at around ½ million, down from 1 million in 1993. However, at 10 per cent, the unemployment rate amongst those aged 18 to 24 is still more than twice that for older workers, and this gap has widened somewhat in recent years.
Unfortunately, official data on the prevalence of low pay is no longer available for the 16 to 24 age group. Data about 18- to 21-year-olds suggests that, since the introduction of the minimum wage, the number paid less than £3.00 per hour fell from 120,000 in 1998 to 50,000 in 2000. In contrast, the number earning below half male median earnings - a higher threshold but still a low rate of pay - remained unchanged.
The number of suicides amongst young adults in England and Wales has been declining since 1997. However, there have been no such decreases in Scotland where suicide rates are three times higher than in England and Wales. Around 30,000 young adults start treatment for problem drug use each year, double the levels of the early 1990s.
Around a quarter of 19-year-olds currently lack a basic qualification (NVQ2 or equivalent), down from a third in 1995. Around one in twelve have no qualifications at all, unchanged since 1995 (see Figure 3).
Three and a half million adults would like to have paid work but do not, down from 5 million in 1993. This fall is slower than that in the official unemployment statistics (which halved over the same period) because of a rise in the numbers of 'economically inactive' people (see Figure 4). There has been no fall in the number of long-term workless households, which currently stands at 2 million, compared with 1½ million in 1993.
Within these overall totals, there are significant differences between groups. People from a minority ethnic background are around twice as likely not to be in work as the white population. Almost half of lone parents did not have paid work in 2001, compared with one in twenty couples with children.
Since its introduction in April 1999, the number earning below the national minimum wage has dropped sharply, from 1½ million in 1998 to ¼ million in 2000. But around 1½ million employees aged 22 and over were still being paid less than half male median earnings (around £4.00 per hour) in 2000, compared with 2 million in 1998. Because substantial numbers of people are now paid at the minimum wage or just above, the precise level at which it is set is clearly crucial.
After rising in the first half of the 1990s, the level of insecure employment has now stabilised, in terms of both the number of people on temporary contracts and the number making repeat claims for jobseeker's allowance. But, amongst those in work, those without qualifications are still three times less likely to receive work-related training as those with qualifications.
Having risen for much of the last decade, the geographic concentration of premature deaths fell for the first time in 2000. Within Great Britain, Scotland has by far the highest proportion of such deaths.
Other health indicators - obesity, limiting long-standing illness or disability, and being at risk of mental illness - have not changed significantly over the last ten years. They continue to illustrate significant inequalities: unskilled manual workers are 1½ times as likely to have a long-standing illness or disability as those from the professional classes, and the poorest two-fifths of the population are 1½ times as likely to be at risk of developing a mental illness as the richest two-fifths.
Apart from the core subject of income levels, there is a lack of clarity about what poverty and social exclusion means for older people.
Around 1¼ million pensioners are totally reliant on the state retirement pension and state benefits. Their spending on essentials increased by an average of 15 per cent in real terms between 1995/96 and 1999/00, compared with an increase of 10 per cent among better-off pensioners
Fewer older pensioners are getting any help from social services to live at home, down by a third since its peak in 1994 (see Figure 5). County councils and unitary authorities support far fewer pensioners than English urban or Welsh authorities. In contrast, the proportion of pensioner households without a telephone continues to fall, and is now a quarter of the levels of a decade ago. Finally, the poorest are around twice as likely to live in badly insulated housing as the best off pensioners.
Most of our housing indicators continue to improve: the number of low income households without central heating has reduced by a third since 1994/95; the level of overcrowding has almost halved in the last decade; and the number of mortgage holders in serious arrears is now at its lowest level for a decade. In contrast, the number of households in temporary accommodation continues to rise sharply and, at 80,000, has nearly doubled since 1997.
Throughout the 1990s, around two-thirds of heads of households in social housing did not have paid work, compared with one-third in other tenures. Three-quarters are on weekly incomes of less than £200 compared with one quarter of residents in other tenures.
One in six of the poorest households do not have any type of bank or building society account, compared with one in twenty households on average incomes. These figures have not changed over the last five years.
While the number of burglaries is now at its lowest level for a decade, households with no household insurance are around three times as likely to be burgled as those with insurance. The impact is particularly serious for those on low incomes because more than half do not have any household insurance - compared with a fifth for households on average income - and, by definition, such people are less able to replace stolen goods themselves (see Figure 6). Reflecting these differences, people in low income households are twice as likely to report that their quality of life is significantly affected by fear of crime than the average and almost twice as likely to feel very dissatisfied with the area in which they live.
The study has utilised data from a wide range of sources, including government-funded surveys, some administrative data and some local authority and health authority returns. The work has only been possible due to the co-operation of civil servants (particularly statisticians) across government.
