Recommendations & Conclusions
9 items
5
Recommendation
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
DWP’s analysis of the drivers of child income poverty from 2014 concluded that a key factor was the quantity and quality of paid work in families. Since this analysis, the labour market has continued to evolve and more children in income poverty are now in working families. We have seen …
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DWP’s analysis of the drivers of child income poverty from 2014 concluded that a key factor was the quantity and quality of paid work in families. Since this analysis, the labour market has continued to evolve and more children in income poverty are now in working families. We have seen the disruption caused by the pandemic and there has been a further decoupling of social security from the cost of living. We think the time is now right for the Department to revisit its analysis.
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Government response AI summary
The government stated that tackling child poverty is a cross-government priority and mentioned the ONS is leading the development of an interactive tool for income and earnings statistics, but did not commit DWP to revisit its own analysis as requested.
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Department for Work and Pensions
10
Conclusion
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
The Government legislated for the statutory monitoring of worklessness and educational attainment indicators in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. It reports performance against these indicators as part of a wider set of ‘Helping Workless Families’ indicators. The Government argued that indicators of worklessness and educational attainment directed attention …
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The Government legislated for the statutory monitoring of worklessness and educational attainment indicators in the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. It reports performance against these indicators as part of a wider set of ‘Helping Workless Families’ indicators. The Government argued that indicators of worklessness and educational attainment directed attention towards the underlying causes of child poverty. Measures of worklessness and educational attainment are certainly useful as part of a wider framework which assesses the causes and consequences of income poverty. But they are not a substitute for measuring poverty. Moreover, we know that most children in income poverty are in working households. We also know that family circumstances and income poverty have a significant impact on educational outcomes.
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Government response AI summary
The government response did not address the committee's conclusion regarding worklessness and educational attainment indicators not being a substitute for measuring poverty, instead providing boilerplate text about existing publications and monitoring.
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Department for Work and Pensions
11
Recommendation
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions broadens the scope of its ‘Helping workless families indicators’ to measure the quantity and quality of work in families and communities, and the quality of family support so that they better address the challenge of in-work poverty and the additional stresses …
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We recommend that the Department for Work and Pensions broadens the scope of its ‘Helping workless families indicators’ to measure the quantity and quality of work in families and communities, and the quality of family support so that they better address the challenge of in-work poverty and the additional stresses often endured by families in income poverty.
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Government response AI summary
The government's response focuses on ongoing research into data matching and analysis programmes for child income poverty and engagement with local authorities regarding Universal Credit data sharing, which does not address broadening the scope of 'Helping workless families indicators'.
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Department for Work and Pensions
15
Recommendation
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
DWP should set out clearly, in response to this report, what work it now plans to do on the development of supplementary experimental statistics using the SMC’s methodology and a timescale for completing this work. It should also explain how the Secretary of State’s focus on aspects of material deprivation …
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DWP should set out clearly, in response to this report, what work it now plans to do on the development of supplementary experimental statistics using the SMC’s methodology and a timescale for completing this work. It should also explain how the Secretary of State’s focus on aspects of material deprivation will inform its approach to poverty measurement.
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Government response AI summary
The government's response discusses general cross-government efforts and ONS development of an interactive tool, but does not set out DWP's plans for supplementary experimental statistics or explain how the Secretary of State's focus will inform poverty measurement.
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Department for Work and Pensions
16
Conclusion
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
The UK can learn from international approaches to poverty measurement, including from those countries and organisations which have developed multidimensional measurement approaches that bring together measures of income poverty and wider social deprivations. Some multidimensional approaches blend measures of income poverty with wider deprivations to produce a single index. There …
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The UK can learn from international approaches to poverty measurement, including from those countries and organisations which have developed multidimensional measurement approaches that bring together measures of income poverty and wider social deprivations. Some multidimensional approaches blend measures of income poverty with wider deprivations to produce a single index. There is a danger that a single index mixes measures of income poverty with factors that may be the consequence or cause of income poverty. This could make it hard to see what is driving changes in the measure and could have the unintended effect of reducing transparency overall.
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Government response AI summary
The government response provided a general statement about its commitment to tackling poverty, existing reporting mechanisms, and focus on work, but did not address the committee's specific observations regarding international measurement approaches or the dangers of a single poverty index.
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Department for Work and Pensions
22
Recommendation
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the delay in publishing poverty data through DWP’s ‘Households Below Average Income’ statistics. DWP and HMRC have a wealth of administrative data on benefits, tax and earnings. DWP can make better use of these to produce ‘closer to real-time’ information on child income …
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The pandemic has brought into sharp relief the delay in publishing poverty data through DWP’s ‘Households Below Average Income’ statistics. DWP and HMRC have a wealth of administrative data on benefits, tax and earnings. DWP can make better use of these to produce ‘closer to real-time’ information on child income poverty to support its strategy. This ‘lead’ data would supplement the data gathered through household surveys. Its publication will help DWP to account for its performance in addressing child poverty.
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Government response AI summary
The government provides a general statement about cross-government poverty efforts and mentions the ONS is developing an interactive tool, but does not commit DWP to using its administrative data to produce 'closer to real-time' child poverty information.
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Department for Work and Pensions
23
Recommendation
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
Working with HMRC and other UK producers of income statistics, DWP should develop a dashboard of child income-related poverty ‘lead’ indicators which are closer to real time and supplement existing survey data sources. DWP should publish this data as part of its child poverty measurement framework.
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Working with HMRC and other UK producers of income statistics, DWP should develop a dashboard of child income-related poverty ‘lead’ indicators which are closer to real time and supplement existing survey data sources. DWP should publish this data as part of its child poverty measurement framework.
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Government response AI summary
The government noted that tackling child poverty is a cross-government priority and mentioned the ONS is developing an interactive tool for income and earnings statistics, but did not commit DWP to develop or publish a specific dashboard of child income-related poverty indicators.
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Department for Work and Pensions
25
Recommendation
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
DWP should commission research examining, in depth, the impacts of the pandemic on children living in families in low income. It should publish the results of this 54 Children in poverty: Measurement and targets analysis alongside its March 2022 Households Below Average Income statistics. DWP should also publish early findings …
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DWP should commission research examining, in depth, the impacts of the pandemic on children living in families in low income. It should publish the results of this 54 Children in poverty: Measurement and targets analysis alongside its March 2022 Households Below Average Income statistics. DWP should also publish early findings from its longer-term project with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office for National Statistics to understand the differential impacts of the pandemic. DWP should use the lessons from its exercise with the Department of Health and Social Care to inform how it might better estimate the health and well-being impacts of future changes to social security affecting children and families.
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Government response AI summary
The government did not commit to commissioning new research examining the pandemic's impacts on low-income children or publishing its results. It noted DHSC is leading the longer-term project and will coordinate publication decisions, effectively redirecting part of the recommendation.
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Department for Work and Pensions
30
Conclusion
Third Report - Children in poverty: Mea…
Not Addressed
Gaps in data on inescapable costs that households face, including those associated with disability and debt, reduce the accuracy of data about who is in poverty. The Social Metrics Commission has shown leadership in highlighting these matters but is reliant on Government data. Making progress on addressing these gaps will …
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Gaps in data on inescapable costs that households face, including those associated with disability and debt, reduce the accuracy of data about who is in poverty. The Social Metrics Commission has shown leadership in highlighting these matters but is reliant on Government data. Making progress on addressing these gaps will require significant commitment from DWP, working with other departments.
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Government response AI summary
The government response outlined existing data collected by the Family Resources Survey and plans to introduce new questions on debt repayments, but did not directly address the committee's conclusion about the impact of data gaps on poverty measurement accuracy or the need for significant DWP …
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Department for Work and Pensions