[UK] 21% in poverty despite progress

from IC Wales

David Williamson, Western Mail

MORE than a fifth of Welsh consumers remain in poverty but the nation is making better progress than much of the United Kingdom, according to official statistics.

Research from the Department for Work and pensions found that in Wales, 21% of the population were in households in relative income poverty - the same percentage as for Great Britain as a whole.

Wales had a lower rate of relative child poverty than London, the North East, the West Midlands, the North West and Merseyside, and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The nation also had a below average percentage of pensioners living in relative income poverty (18% compared with 20%).

More than a quarter (28%) of children in Wales were living in households in relative income poverty, again equal to the average for Great Britain.

Just under a fifth (19%) of adults of working age in Wales lived in households in relative income poverty, which is the same as the British average.

The results show the percentage of Welsh individuals living in relative income poverty, after housing costs, has been converging with the respective figure across Great Britain and is currently at the same level (21%).

When the figures are analysed before housing costs, standards are still shown to have been converging, although Wales still has a higher level of people in poverty (19% versus 17%).