Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Thérèse Coffey): The
Department for Work and Pensions has today published annual
statistics covering 2019/20 including on Households Below Average
Income (HBAI) and Separated Families. HBAI covers a range of
information, including household incomes and a range of
low-income indicators for 2019/20, derived from the Family
Resources Survey of around 20,000 households.
Between 2018/19 and 2019/20, the proportion of people below the
absolute low income line fell. Before housing costs, this was a
decrease of 1 percentage point to 14% or 9.2 million people.
After housing costs, it was a fall of 2 percentage points to 18%
or 11.7 million people. There were also decreases in absolute low
income after housing costs for children, pensioners, working-age
people and individuals living in a household where someone is
disabled. Compared to 2009/10, there were over 1.3 million fewer
people in absolute low income, after housing costs: 260,000 fewer
children, 890,000 working age adults and 180,000 pensioners.
In 2019/20, median household incomes grew by 4.5% after
inflation, an increase of over £1,000 a year to reach an all-time
high, alongside a record high employment rate. This was the
strongest annual income growth since 2001/02. Incomes increased
across the entire income distribution, with the poorest 20% of
households seeing their real incomes increase by over 6% on
average after housing costs. This growth in median income
reflects the success of government policies we have taken to help
people move into work and keep more of what they earn, for
example, raising the National Living Wage and increasing the
personal tax allowance.
The statistics show increases in the proportions of households
below the relative low income lines, reflecting the very strong
growth in median income in 2019/20. The proportion of households
below the relative low income line, before housing costs,
increased by one percentage point to 18% or 11.7 million
individuals, and, after housing costs, the proportion remained
the same at 22% or 14.5 million individuals. There were increases
in relative poverty both before and after housing costs for
children, pensioners and those living in households where someone
is disabled.
Rates of combined low income and material deprivation for
children were lower in 2019/20 than in 2010/11 and rates of
material deprivation for pensioners remained at a record low of
6%.
Today’s statistics also show that 44% of separated families did
not have a child maintenance arrangement in place in 2019/20. We
know that child maintenance payments have a significant impact on
reducing the number of children living in low income households.
For the first time, estimates relating to the income
distributions of parents in separated families have been
published, showing that 60,000 children move out of absolute low
income before housing costs; 120,000 after housing costs as a
result of child maintenance payments from 2017/18 to 2019/20.
We have also published data on household food security from the
Family Resources Survey for the first time, to get a better
understanding of the lived experience of families. This shows
that 8% of households are classed as food insecure, with 4% of
households in low food security and 4% in very low household food
security.
Overall, these statistics reinforce that the economy entered the
pandemic in a strong position, with people seeing rising incomes.
The Government has built on this firm financial foundation with
an unprecedented package of measures to protect livelihoods and
incomes, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self
Employment Income Support Scheme and an extra £7.1 billion of
welfare support in 2020/21. Our Plan for Jobs and the support
provided through Universal Credit are helping people to raise
their incomes by moving into and progressing in work.
