Annex

Annex A: User Engagement

Our review was based on desk research which we carried out ourselves, as well as through stakeholder engagement in the form of interviews, workshops and focus groups.

Direct engagement

We spoke to users from a range of different backgrounds, including think tanks, research centres, academia, national and local government and charities.

Annex B: Statistics landscape

The following list encompasses the range of official statistics on income-based poverty:

We have also referred to a number of non-official statistics in this report, that make an important contribution to the landscape of poverty statistics concerning low income:

Annex C: Glossary

Absolute poverty: Living in a household with an income that is below a level that was the relative low-income threshold in 2010/11 adjusted for inflation. Reported both before and after housing costs.

Deep poverty: Whilst precise definitions differ, ‘deep poverty’ is generally used to refer to those living at the lowest end of the income distribution and experiencing the most severe levels of poverty.

Destitution: Going without the essentials we all need to eat, stay warm and dry, and keep clean.

Equivalisation: Standard methodology that adjusts household income to account for the different financial resource requirements of different household types, based on size and composition.

Family Resources Survey: Produced by DWP, the FRS is a continuous household survey which collects information on a representative sample of private households in the United Kingdom.

Households Below Average Income: Statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low-income households in the UK, based on data from the Family Resources Survey.

Household Finances Survey: New integrated ONS household finance survey, that combines the Living Costs and Food survey (LCF) and the Survey on Living Conditions (SLC). Surveys around 17,000 private households in the UK on a voluntary basis to ask them questions about their income.

Indices of Multiple Deprivation: Official measure of relative deprivation. People may be considered to be living in poverty if they lack the financial resources to meet their needs, whereas people can be regarded as deprived if they lack any kind of resources, not just income. The index is based on various indicators, organised across distinct domains of deprivation, which are combined and weighted. They are produced separately for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Living Costs and Food Survey: Collects information on spending patterns and the cost of living that reflect household budgets. It is conducted throughout the year, across the whole of the UK, by ONS.

Material Deprivation: The inability for individuals or households to access those consumption goods and activities that are typical in a society at a given point in time, irrespective of people’s preferences with respect to these items.

Persistent poverty: Defined by ONS as being in (relative income) poverty in the current year and at least two of the three preceding years. Defined by DWP as being in (relative income) poverty for at least three of the last four years.

Relative poverty: Defined as living in a household with an income that is low relative to others, as determined by whether the income is below 60 per cent of median income. Reported both before and after housing costs.