To be sad 32% of children near me are in poverty?

[Redisthecolour]

www.nomorekidsinpoverty.uk/ how about you?

How can this be acceptable??

luxy 22% here as well. I live in quite an affluent area with very low fsm. Ofsted describes it as affluent as well and I really can't think of any areas within our constituency that would be anywhere near being classed as deprived so I'm not convinced on the accuracy of the data.

Unable or unwilling to access things which would allow them to be included in mainstream society?

It gets very annoying when I keep coming across children who's parent(s) are on benefits but the kids all have the latest iPhone and Sky TV at home and the parents but are unwilling to spend any actual time with them (like take them to the park or help with homework), even though the parent(s) don't work.

Obviously there are also genuine cases of people struggling with paying the basics...

we have about £250/week after all bills i dont think we are in poverty we have budget but we are definatley not in poverty.

Poverty is defined in such a way that if, in the distant future, every family lived in a mansion, with a robot-butler and a self-driving Rolls Royce, a proportion of those families children would (by definition) be living in poverty. (Perhaps their Rolls Royce isn't gold-plated.)

I'm not making any comment on what "poverty" means today, I'm just pointing out that it is manipulative nonsense to suggest that the fact x% of people are in poverty is some sort of emergency which we must immediately go out and do something about. Relative poverty is defined in a way that means there will always be a significant percentage in poverty, no matter what we do. (Well, a totalitarian state enforcing perfect communism might eliminate it, but in the absence of that, it will always exist.)

One way we could eliminate "poverty", for the people the OP is talking about, without changing the definition, would be to change our borders. If we formed a union with Somalia say, then all those poor people would cease being poor at a stroke of a pen, the moment the act of union passed into law.

Somebody will be along shortly to explain why British people are automatically entitled to a high standard of living than someone born in Somalia.

18% here (little village in South Norfolk).

We would be considered to be one of the families in poverty I think. We have two dc, one of those is severely disabled so I look after them full time and dh works full time in a min wage job (full time meaning 55 hours a week). We don't have sky, don't drink or smoke or even go out. Ever. We struggle to get by week to week and thanks to George Osbourne we are set to lose about £40 a week if the tax credit proposals go ahead. People think because we claim dla and carers we are exempt but we are not - we are exempt from the cap but not the tax credit threshold changes. It's a really shit situation.

Dh is frantically trying to find better paid work but in an area where most jobs are low paid it is very impossible to improve the situation.

How can you see where the 'poorer' areas are? All the map tells you is the number and then shows where the supporters are? So there are huge swathes of areas marked or unmarked but this centres on the town so you can't tell where the areas are. Or is it just people knowing where the areas are in their towns? I honestly wouldn't be able to tell in our (admittedly small) town? I know one town near us is 'posh' but do the stats include that? Is that throwing of the stats for my town which seem so migh lower than expected, especially given our school demographic?

do you rent Fairy ? we are in the same position i also care for our severly disabled child i did read though if tax credits are cut your entitlement to housing benefit should increase no help if you own though.

17%. I don't know how reliable that source is, obviously. If there's a left-wing agenda, the percentages will be high. That said, 17% is what I would guess in my constituency. I'm no poverty-denier either...of course there's poverty in the UK!

And the map keeps jumping from story to story so is very very annoying!

35% near me (Lewisham, SE London)

Going by seeyou's definition: "Definition of poverty is a family with an income led [sic] than 60% of median income."

Not to attract comments about Sky and kids in Africa, but doesn't this mean that in any area, with any level of income disparity, some families will statistically be "in poverty" according to the definition, regardless of their quality of life?

I.e. imagine an area where Family 1 earns £120,000; Family 2 earns £100000; Family 3 earns £90,000, Family 4 £70,000; Family 5 £60,000. Median income is £90,000. 60% of that is £54,000. Probably not poverty-level unless the family circumstances are unusual.

There are places in London where I imagine the median income is quite high.

It might be a moot point - there is genuine deprivation around here - but I'm not sure that the definition used is helpful to capture actual numbers.

from fullfacts :

Relative poverty

Relative poverty generally means that a person can’t afford an “ordinary living pattern“—they’re excluded from the activities and opportunities that the average person enjoys.

A household is in relative poverty (also called relative low income) if its income is below 60% of the median household income. Because the government is measuring quality of living rather than earning power, incomes are measured after taxes and benefits.

oh and just to define median (again from fullfacts)
The median is the number ‘in the middle’ of a set—so half of all households earn more than the median income household, and half earn less.

It says 13% here, does anyone know the definition of poverty?

Is there an allowance for regional variation? I'm in NE Scotland where someone can buy a decent 3 bed house near good schools for £120k. You can easily buy a 2 bed flat (in a shit area) for £35k. Rents are mostly slightly cheaper than what mortgage repayments would often be. That makes £23k a reasonable income.

Apparently 16% in my very affluent town in the London commuter belt. I'd be VERY surprised if that's correct.

Ignore the end of my post I hadn't read the thread, sorry.

cat - a family with an income less than 60% of median income.

you cannot compare like for like in different parts of the country either, i,m in the northwest of england i gave up my job to care for my disabled child but rents and house prices are considerably cheaper here than in the south if we lived in the south i wouldn't have been able to do it even with the help we now receive from tax credits and housing benefit my rent is £87 /week.

The stats were compiled from the electoral area I live in which is obviously large as I clicked through to research source. This includes one city and many rural villages and lots of small to mid size towns.

CPAG used to have a list of items indicating what were the basics to feel part of society. It included things like having friends over for tea and being able to buy a warm coat and have two pairs of shoes.This was over 20 years ago so unsure how if such a list exists anymore.

CPAG definition though not a list of what poverty is, can't see a list.

www.cpag.org.uk/content/what-is-poverty

It's 23% in my area.

19%. West Wiltshire.

But how are they defining poverty?

I wouldn't be surprised if DS was counted as a child 'in poverty' due to my part-time minimum wage job but I think we do okay.

I know a few people who are unemployed and none of them are in dire circumstances. Have food, new clothes, toys/games, heating on, etc.

There could also be parents earning £££ but very little being spent on their children so the children are living in poverty but statistics say otherwise.

where are they?
Near me there is children and families sleeping in multi story car parks. I doubt they are on the electoral register so included in this. Affluent south east.

18%, tbh I expected higher.

Childhood poverty is a problem but I've no time for an organisation who displays data to which is not entirely validated.

And comparing poverty in the SE to poverty in Scotland is a joke.

23k per annum, income in London is really not a lot - that same amount in a small town up North, will go further!

If you want an open and honest dialogue about how to improve things, appropriate definitions ARE required and there is room for discussion about appropriate geographical based measures of poverty.

I take this data with a pinch of salt, but not because I don't believe that there is real poverty in this country, which of course needs addressing.

23% here. Many of the poor children, I would guess, are the DCs of those with drug and alcohol problems, or mental health probs. Who are possibly costing a great deal in SS, police, NHS costs already. So money is being spent but the DCs dont' directly benefit.