About our UK Poverty news
Latest news on poverty in the United Kingdom. Official poverty estimates for the UK are published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Rates of poverty fell just before the turn of the century and continued to do so until 2004–05. The Institute of Fiscal Studies has counted the number of people in poverty as falling from c.37% in 1996/7 (21.8m people) to c.22% in 2004/5 (13.2m), a figure that remained the same in 2014/5 (14.1m taking population growth into account).
The trend for Relative Poverty is the same (a fall in the number of poor from 1997-98 until 2004-05 and a relatively stable amount since then), although the earlier numbers are lower. Alternatively, it is suggested poverty rose from about 2008-12 but remained stable since then.
A total of 14.4 million people were estimated to be in relative low income - below 60% of average household income - in the year to March 2022. This was down from 13.4 million in the year to March 2021 but almost back to the number a year previously when 14.5 million were living in poverty as the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
Official statistics released by the Department for Work and Pensions on Thursday showed that 4.2 million children were estimated to be living in poverty in the year to March 2022. This was a rise from 3.9 million the previous year. The figure for the year to March 2020 was 4.3 million.