How do experts think child poverty should be measured in the UK? An analysis of the Coalition Government’s consultation on child poverty measurement 2012-13

Stewart, Kitty ORCID: 0000-0001-7744-8741 and Roberts, Nick (2016) How do experts think child poverty should be measured in the UK? An analysis of the Coalition Government’s consultation on child poverty measurement 2012-13. CASEpapers (197). Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion.

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Abstract

This paper examines responses to a 2012-13 government consultation on child poverty measurement. It explores what these responses tell us about attitudes towards the child poverty indicators in the Child Poverty Act 2010, and about the extent of support for a broader approach to measurement. The study was motivated by the amendments to the Child Poverty Act put forward by the Conservative Government in 2015. Using a Freedom of Information request, we gained access to 251 of the 257 consultation responses, which came from individuals and organisations with a wide range of expertise, including academics, local authorities, frontline services and children’s charities. Our analysis finds strong support for the original suite of measures and near universal support for keeping income at the heart of poverty measurement; poverty is understood primarily to be a relative lack of material resources, with income widely believed to be the best proxy measure. While there is considerable support for capturing information around other dimensions, these are generally seen as causes or consequences of poverty, or as broader life chance measures, not as measures of child poverty itself. The paper also considers the government’s published summary of the consultation responses, and discusses differences between the government’s interpretation and our own.

Item Type:	Monograph (Working Paper)
Official URL:	https://sticerd.lse.ac.uk/CASE/_NEW/PUBLICATIONS/a...
Additional Information:	© 2016 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Social Policy
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
JEL classification:	I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare and Poverty > I32 - Measurement and Analysis of Poverty D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J13 - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2020 16:12
Last Modified:	14 Sep 2024 04:09
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/103514

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