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921809

registered interest
date	11/06/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to respond to the report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation Destitution in the UK 2018 published in June revealing that there are 1.5 million people living in destitution in the UK.
tabling member printed	Lord Ouseley
uin	HL8508
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/06/2018 answer text <p>The Joseph Rowntree Trust’s report refers to people who were destitute “at some point” during 2017 not to the number of people living in destitution.</p><p> </p><p>This Government will continue with its ambitious reforms to the welfare system so that it encourages people to move into and progress in work, and move towards financial independence. Compared with 2010, there are now around 880,000 fewer adults in workless households and 1 million fewer people in absolute poverty (on a before housing costing costs basis). Of those in the poorest fifth of the population in 2010/11, just over half had moved further up the income distribution 5 years later.</p><p> </p><p>The Government is also continuing to help those who face the greatest employment barriers and who are most at-risk of being in severe and long-term low income, for example, through individualised, tailored support from Jobcentre Work Coaches. For people with health conditions or a disability, this support can include early access to the new Work and Health Programme and Specialist Employability Support. As a safeguard for people in urgent need, a well-established system of hardship payments, benefit advances and budgeting loans is in place. <br></p><p>We are also considering how we can develop and make greater use of the existing suite of official measures of poverty so that they better identify and track progress on helping those who are most in need of additional support.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 25/06/2018 11:36:09 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	2170 label Biography information for Lord Ouseley

916549

registered interest
date	04/06/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans, if any, they have to adopt an all-of-government approach to preventing the root causes of poverty.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL8255
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/06/2018 answer text <p>This Government believes that works provides people with the best opportunity for getting out of poverty and into self-reliance. This is why it is committed to collective action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage through a range of policies that encourage people to move into and progress in work including Universal Credit, the National Living Wage, tax changes, and up to 30 hours of free childcare a week. There are around 880,000 fewer adults and almost 600,000 fewer children in workless households compared with 2010.</p><p> </p><p>‘Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families’, published on 4 April, set out a framework for improving outcomes for children in workless households including nine cross-departmental indicators to track progress across a number of departments in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families and their children. The Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with a range of external stakeholders and with other Departments to take forward the policies set out in the paper and is also committed to pushing annual updates against all nine indicators.</p><p><br>The Department is also represented at a ministerial level at a number of groups and forums which focus on supporting those who are most disadvantaged, whether or not they have children, including Inter Ministerial Groups on Rough Sleeping and Homelessness Reduction Taskforce, Serious Violence Strategy, Violence against Women and Girls, Race Disparity, Safe and Integrated Communities, the Reducing Reoffending Board and the Drugs Strategy Board. It also co-chairs the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 13/06/2018 11:31:33 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

906017

registered interest
date	16/05/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the concept of relative poverty.
tabling member printed	Baroness Lister of Burtersett
uin	HL7943
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/05/2018 answer text <p>Relative low income sets a threshold as a proportion of the UK average (median) income and moves each year as average income changes. It is used to measure the number and proportion of individuals who have income below this threshold (typically 50, 60 or 70 per cent of the median).</p><p> </p><p>The percentage of individuals in relative low income will decrease if average (median) income stays the same or rises, and individuals with lower incomes see their incomes rise more than the average. The percentage of individuals in relative low income will also decrease if average (median) incomes fall, and individuals with lower incomes fall by less than average incomes.</p><p> </p><p>This second scenario, where individuals can move out of low income despite a fall in their own income, is an example where relative low income measures taken on their own might be misleading. A further hypothetical scenario where relative measures have their limitations is if all incomes doubled overnight there would be no change in relative low income estimates.</p><p> </p><p>This is why the Department also publishes a range of absolute low income measures. Absolute low income takes the 60 per cent of median income threshold in 2010/11 and adjusts this to take account of inflation. This is designed to assess how incomes are faring with reference to inflation over time.</p><p> </p><p>The percentage of individuals in absolute low income will decrease if individuals with lower incomes see their incomes increase by more than inflation.</p><p> </p><p>The Department also publishes a measure of persistent low income as the amount of time an individual has low income has been shown to have an impact on their actual standard of living. Persistent low income is defined as having had low income in at least 3 out of the last 4 years. Also a measure of material deprivation is published which measures whether individuals have access to a range of goods and services so provides a broader measure of living standards which goes beyond assessing income only.</p><p> </p><p>No one measure of poverty is able to fully capture the concept of a low standard of living in all economic circumstances. Taken together all these measures are required to provide a comprehensive assessment of living standards.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 23/05/2018 12:30:39 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4234 label Biography information for Baroness Lister of Burtersett

845380

registered interest
date	20/02/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 12 December 2017 (HL3812), which (1) ministers, (2) departments, (3) agencies, and (4) arm’s length government bodies, including non-ministerial departments, executive agencies, non-departmental public bodies and public corporations, have responsibility for poverty, and issues relating to poverty.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL5580
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>This Government is committed to collective action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage through a range of policies, such as Universal Credit, the National Living Wage, tax changes, and up to 30 hours of free childcare a week to incentivise employment as the best opportunity for families to get out of poverty and become self-reliant.</p><p> </p><p>In <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, we set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s long-term outcomes. This includes nine national indicators to track progress across a number of departments in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families and their children. The Government has a statutory duty to report annually against two of these indicators - parental employment, and children’s educational attainment. The relevant departments and agencies - Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, HM Treasury and Department for Work and Pensions – all aim to publish data on the other, non-statutory indicators by the end of March.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 13:30:24 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

845381

registered interest
date	20/02/2018
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of their preventative approach with regard to addressing the root causes of poverty in the long term.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL5581
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 06/03/2018 answer text <p>This Government is committed to action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage. We are undertaking the most ambitious reform to the welfare system in decades to ensure that it supports people to find and progress in work. This is because we have clear evidence that work offers families the best opportunity to get out of poverty and to become self-reliant. Adults in workless families are 4 times more likely to be in poverty than those in working families. We also know that children living in workless households are 5 times more likely to be in poverty than those where all adults work. We are making good progress. Nationally, there are now 954,000 fewer workless households, and 608,000 fewer children living in such households compared with 2010.</p><p> </p><p>In <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, we set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s long-term outcomes. This includes nine national indicators to track progress across government in tackling the disadvantages that can affect families and their children. The Government has a statutory duty to report annually against two of these indicators - parental employment, and children’s educational attainment.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 06/03/2018 16:26:36 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

807246

registered interest
date	15/12/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they have learned from measures to tackle the root causes of poverty taken by the devolved administrations, social enterprises, non-governmental organisations, charities and other organisations.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL4227
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/12/2017 answer text <p>Officials in DWP continue to engage with external organisations and with devolved administrations on a wide range of welfare issues, including constructive discussions about approaches to tackling poverty. The Government is very clear that work is the best route out of poverty and our welfare reforms are designed to incentivise employment and support people to progress in work.</p><p>In April this year we published Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families which sets out a framework to improve outcomes for workless families, now and in the future. Central to this approach is effective joint working between Jobcentre Plus and local partners, including third sector organisations, which specialise in supporting people with multiple and complex needs, to ensure coordination of support and sharing of expertise at a local level. Children in workless families are significantly more disadvantaged, and achieve poorer educational and employment outcomes than other children, including those in lower-income working families. That is why we will continue with policies that support and encourage employment - reforming the welfare system to make work pay. And these policies are working: since 2010, there are 3 million more people in work, with 954,000 fewer workless households, and 608,000 fewer children in workless households across the UK. The UK unemployment rate has not been lower since 1975 and the proportion of workless households is at its lowest since records began.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 22/12/2017 13:09:44 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe attachment 1 file name improving-lives-helping-workless-families-print-version.pdf title Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

802411

registered interest
date	06/12/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how they intend to respond to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's finding that 400,000 more children and 300,000 more pensioners have fallen into relative poverty since 2012–13; and what assessment they have made of (1) when, and (2) at what level, that trend will peak.
tabling member printed	Lord Ouseley
uin	HL3944
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2017 answer text <p>The figures quoted in the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report are taken directly from the Department’s Households Below Average Income (HBAI) series, which was published in March 2017. This publication also shows on an after housing costs basis over the same period 2012/13 to 2015/16, the number of people in absolute low income (where the poverty line moves with inflation), fell by 1.1m individuals, including 200,000 children and 100,000 pensioners. This shows that real incomes are increasing at the lower end of the distribution.</p><p> </p><p>However we are not complacent. For children we are committed to action that tackles the root causes of child poverty and disadvantage, with policies that incentivise employment being the best route out of poverty and ultimately improving children’s long-term outcomes. <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, includes nine national indicators to track progress in tackling the disadvantages that affect families and children. Four of these measures are set out in Primary legislation and place a duty on the Government to report annually to Parliament on the parental worklessness and educational attainment indicators. Data on the non-statutory indicators will also be published each year.</p><p> </p><p>For pensioners, we are committed to protecting up to the full amounts of the basic and new State Pensions through the Triple Lock and to supporting vulnerable pensioner households with pension credit. Pensioners are also supported with Winter Fuel Payments, free TV licences for those aged 75 and over and the free bus pass.</p><p> </p><p>The Department does not forecast estimates of low income, but the next HBAI publication for 2016/17 data has been pre-announced in line with National Statistics protocols and will be published by the end of March 2018. The government is committed to continue publishing this series on an annual basis.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 12/12/2017 15:47:17 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	2170 label Biography information for Lord Ouseley

800425

registered interest
date	04/12/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 28 July (HL954), in what ways, and by which means, (1) ministers, and (2) departments, work together to tackle the root causes of poverty, including through (a) committees, (b) units, (c) taskforces, and (d) forums.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL3812
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2017 answer text <p><em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, published on 4 April, set out a framework for improving outcomes for disadvantaged children, now and in the future. The Department for Work and Pensions continues to work with key stakeholders and with other Departments to take forward the four policies set out in the paper. Further announcements will be made in due course.</p><p> </p><p>This paper also set out national statutory and non-statutory indicators to track progress in tackling worklessness and associated disadvantages that can affect families’ and children’s lives. We made available the latest analysis and an evidence base to enable local authorities, local partners and others to understand, and act on, the complex factors of disadvantage in their local area. This includes local-level data on the factors of disadvantage that are available through a local government data tool (LG Inform).</p><p> </p><p>The Department for Work and Pensions works across government and is represented at a ministerial level at a number of groups and forums which focus on supporting those who are most disadvantaged, including the Social Reform Committee, Inter Ministerial Groups on Homelessness, Gangs and Violence against Women and Girls and the Drugs Strategy Group. In the future DWP will co-chair the Financial Inclusion Policy Forum with the Economic Secretary to the Treasury.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 12/12/2017 12:19:19 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

800427

registered interest
date	04/12/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions, if any, they have had with the devolved administrations since 2010 about possible coordinated actions across the UK to reduce (1) poverty, and (2) child poverty; whether they have learned any lessons from specific initiatives introduced by those administrations that may now be applied in England; and if so, what.
tabling member printed	Lord Bird
uin	HL3814
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 12/12/2017 answer text <p>This Government is committed to an approach to tackling poverty that goes beyond a focus on the safety net of the welfare system. Work is the best route out of poverty and our welfare reforms are designed to incentivise employment and support people to progress in work. There are now 954,000 fewer workless households and 608,000 fewer children in workless households across the UK compared with 2010. Through <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em> we have set out a framework for a continued focus for improving outcomes for workless families, now and in the future.</p><p> </p><p>The Scottish Government has powers in the Scotland Act 2016 to introduce new provision in areas where responsibility is devolved and the Devolved Government in Wales and Scotland are also free to develop their own approaches to tackling child poverty.</p><p> </p><p>Officials in DWP continue to have regular engagement with devolved administrations on a wide range of welfare issues, including constructive discussions about the Improving Lives evidence base and approaches to tackling poverty.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe question first answered 12/12/2017 15:16:39 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	4564 label Biography information for Lord Bird

800462

registered interest
date	04/12/2017
answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
answering dept id	29
answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
hansard heading	Poverty
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 28 November (HL3456), how they assess and evaluate (1) progress in tackling poverty, and (2) the impact of their fiscal and welfare policies on those vulnerable groups of people they have pledged to assist.
tabling member printed	Lord Ouseley
uin	HL3849
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/12/2017 answer text <p>This Government is committed to action that tackles the root causes of poverty and disadvantage with policies that incentivise employment as the best route out of poverty. In <em>Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families</em>, we set out a framework for a continued focus on improving children’s long-term outcomes. This includes nine national indicators to track progress in tackling the disadvantages that affect families and children. Four of these measures are set out in Primary legislation which places a duty on the Government report annually to Parliament on the parental worklessness and educational attainment indicators. Data on the non-statutory indicators will also be published each year.</p><p> </p><p>The Government carefully considers the equality impacts of individual policies on those with protected characteristics, including gender, race and disability - in line with both its legal obligations and with its strong commitment to equality issues.</p><p> </p><p>Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) undertake distributional analysis, at each fiscal event, to assess the impact of tax, welfare and public spending changes on household incomes. The latest was published to accompany Autumn Budget 2017.</p> answering member printed Baroness Buscombe attachment 1 file name HL3849 HMT budget 2017.pdf title HMT Budget 2017 2 file name HL3849 improving-lives-helping-workless-families-print-version - Copy.pdf title Improving Lives: Helping Workless Families question first answered 15/12/2017 11:24:26 answering member 3349 label Biography information for Baroness Buscombe
tabling member	2170 label Biography information for Lord Ouseley