Recommendation 24

The 12-month delay in producing income poverty statistics means that DWP data on the proportion of children in low income for the year to March 2021 will not be published until March 2022. We were encouraged to hear that DWP is working with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Office for National Statistics to understand better the impact of the pandemic on family outcomes. Lessons from this exercise might also help DWP in its approach to modelling the impact of future changes to social security on health and well-being. It is, nevertheless, surprising that DWP has not published any more research or analysis on the impact of the pandemic on children and families in low incomes, bearing in mind its responsibilities for poverty. This seems especially important in the light of evidence from other sources, including witnesses to our inquiry, that the pandemic has particularly affected families and children towards the bottom of the income distribution who were already vulnerable before covid-19 struck.