Persistent poverty: families with children

This report by the National Centre for Social Research examined families who experience persistent poverty, as opposed to poverty at any one point in time, in order to examine the nature of persistent poverty and examine key risk factors. They use the government's definition of poverty (below 60% of the median income).

Key points:
- On average, around one-fifth of families with children were below the low income threshold at each of the four years under investigation. 38% of families with children experienced at least one year of low income during this period. 12% of families with children experienced persistent poverty during the period 2001 to 2004. One-quarter of families were temporary poor, that is poor in one or two of the four-year period.
- Persistently poor families received markedly less average income (under £200 equivalised income per week) than temporary poor families (£245), and only slightly more than half of this income came from earnings. Persistently poor families were significantly more likely than temporary poor families to have difficulties saving regularly, paying household bills and making money last.
- Children in persistently poor families were more likely than children in temporary poor
households to be at risk of poor outcomes across a number of Every Child Matters domains, including:
• going without regular physical exercise (12% to 8%);
• being suspended or expelled from school (11% to 6%);
• being in trouble with the police (5% compared to 3%);
• living in bad housing (48% compared to 33%);
• lacking a number of material deprivation items (3.9 items compared to 2.6 items);
• facing multiple (three or more) negative outcomes (28% compared to 18%).
- Predictably, work was seen as a good protective factor from persistent poverty for both lone-parent and couple families. However, the risk of persistent poverty was high for couple families where only one parent worked for 16 or more hours per week, particularly if it was the mother working. Being without work for a number of years increased the risk of persistent poverty even further. Other factors that were associated with an increased likelihood of persistent, rather than temporary, poverty include not having access to a car (for a lone mother) and, for couple families having a Black or Minority Ethnic mother and parents with no qualifications.