Department for Work and Pensions

20 March 2008 - Public Attitudes to child poverty

Findings are published today from a survey commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) looking at public attitudes to child poverty. DWP placed the survey questions on a national face-to-face omnibus survey of 1,500 members of the public, which was carried out by an independent research organisation in July-September 2007. Key findings from the survey show that:

• Forty-one per cent of respondents thought there was very little real child poverty in Britain today; 53 per cent thought there was quite a lot.
• Most respondents thought that child poverty in Britain had increased or stayed the same over the last decade, and most thought it would increase or stay the same over the next ten years.
• Just over half (57 per cent) of respondents thought an unemployed single mother living solely on state benefits would be hard up or really poor. This figure fell slightly, to 52 per cent, when respondents were given the amount they might commonly receive (?123 per week after housing and council tax costs).
• Over two-thirds (69 per cent) of respondents thought that a couple family with two children living solely on income from the father's full time work on the minimum wage, with tax credits, would be hard up or really poor. This figure fell to 49 per cent when respondents were given an example amount they might receive (?241 per week after housing and council tax costs).
• Eighty per cent of respondents though central government had responsibility for addressing child poverty. Local government was chosen by a third (35 per cent). Individuals/families were also chosen by a third (again, 35 per cent).¹
• Respondents were asked to select three reasons they thought best explained child poverty from a list of thirteen. The three most frequently chosen reasons were:
  • their parents suffer from alcoholism, drug abuse or other addictions (45 per cent)² ;
  • there has been a family break-up or loss of a family member (38 per cent); and,
  • their parents' work doesn't pay enough (37 per cent).

1. Respondents could choose more than one option.
2. Evidence suggests that 4 per cent of lone parents have alcohol dependence and 2 per cent drug dependence. The respective figures for couples with children are 3 per cent and 1 per cent. Ref:Gould N (2006) Mental health and child poverty, York:Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Notes to Editors

1. The DWP research summary ‘Public Attitudes to Child Poverty’ is published on 20 March 2008. A copy is available on the DWP website at http://research.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd5/summ2007-2008/PublicAttitudestoChildPoverty.pdf.
2. The recent joint HM Treasury, Department for Work and Pensions and Department for Children, Schools and Families publication ‘Ending Child Poverty: Everybody’s Business’, published on 12 March 2008, sets out the Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty. It also outlines the causes of child poverty, the case for eradicating it, and the Government’s current and future work towards this.
3. The Child Poverty Unit was formed in October 2007 to ensure that there is a clear cross Government approach to tackling child poverty.  The Unit brings together the expertise of officials from DWP and DCSF and will work closely with HMT and our key stakeholders to drive forward the child poverty agenda and progress towards the target to halve child poverty by 2010, on the way to eradicating it by 2020.
4. DWP’s headline child poverty measure is the proportion of children living in households with income which is less than 60 per cent of the median. A child is currently defined as an individual aged under 16, or an unmarried 16 to 18 year old in full-time education.
5. The number of children in poverty using DWP’s headline measure has fallen by 600,000 since 1998/99, from 3.4 million to 2.8 million in 2005/06, the latest year for which figures are available. Over this time a child’s risk of being in poverty has fallen from 26 per cent to 22 per cent.