Rising housing costs push up child and adult poverty

Commenting on the latest Household Below Average Income figures published today (Tuesday) by the Office for National Statistics – which show that between 2010/11 and 2012/13 the number of working age adults in absolute poverty  increased by a million, and the number of children by half a million – TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“Today’s figures clearly show why living standards are falling. While wages have stagnated, and benefits and tax credits have been cut, prices have been rising – especially the cost of housing.

“Since the last election a million more adults and half a million more children fell into absolute poverty when housing costs are taken into account. Without a major affordable home building programme and action to secure fair wages, this type of poverty will continue to grow.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- On relative measures for child and adult poverty, there were no significant changes in the new data published today. However, for the absolute poverty measure after housing costs (AHC) there were increases for adults and children. Absolute poverty calculates the number of children living under the 60 per cent poverty line using median household incomes from the baseline year 2010/11.The absolute poverty (AHC) increase for working adults was from 7.7 million in 2010/11 to 8.7 million in 2012/13 and the increase for children was from 3.6 to 4.1 million between 2010/11 and 2012/13.

- The Households Below Average Income statistics can be found at

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/households-below-average-income-hbai-199495-to-201213

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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