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Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2003
Author(s) -
Reading Richard
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
child: care, health and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1365-2214
pISSN - 0305-1862
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2004.406_5.x
Subject(s) - poverty , earnings , social exclusion , milestone , poverty threshold , demographic economics , government (linguistics) , economics , working poor , fell , economic growth , development economics , geography , linguistics , philosophy , cartography , accounting , archaeology
The New Policy Institute has produced its sixth annual report of indicators of poverty and social exclusion. This year's report focuses on regional variations across England, Scotland and Wales. With 5 years of data now available to measure progress since Labour came to office in 1997, it is becoming much clearer where the Government's strategy for combating poverty and social exclusion is being successful – and where it is not. With the number of people living in low‐income households now on a steady downward trend, the latest figures (for 2001/2002) passed the notable milestone of taking income poverty lower than at any time in the 1990s. The main reason why the number of people in low‐income households fell in the 5 years to 2001/2002 is that there were fewer people in workless households. But, over the same period, the number of people in low‐income, working households did not fall. Out‐of‐work benefits to both working‐age families with dependent children and to pensioners have risen by around 30% in real terms since 1998, faster than earnings. This, plus the rise in tax credits, will have had a significant impact on the severity of poverty suffered by some low‐income households even when it has not taken them above the low‐income threshold. In education, earlier progress in increasing the numbers of those with an adequate minimum level of qualification has stalled, with no further advance since 2000, compared with rapid progress during the second half of the 1990s. Around a quarter of young people at each of the ages of 11, 16 and 19 are still failing to reach a basic level of attainment. There is no sign of any reduction since 1997 in the health inequalities which leave people with low incomes more likely to suffer serious health‐related problems. Across the range of indicators, problems of poverty and social exclusion are generally more prevalent in the North‐east than in other areas of the country. London has particular problems centred on low income and work and Scotland has particular problems centred on health.