Source · Select Committees · Work and Pensions Committee
Recommendation 25
25
Paragraph: 97
DWP should commission research examining, in depth, the impacts of the pandemic on children living...
Recommendation
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.
Paragraph Reference:
97
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
This Government remains committed to publishing its annual Households Below Average Income publication in March 2022 which covers the first year of the pandemic, subject to the usual checks on data quality. The large household surveys which inform our poverty publications – the Family Resources Survey and Understanding Society – have continued to run during the pandemic, despite significant challenges. This Government also continues to monitor and collect a variety of evidence, including data and external research about the impacts of the pandemic. DHSC is the Department leading the Shared Outcomes Fund project and will coordinate publication decisions.