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Third fall below poverty line in UK

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Ana Sat 23-May-15 17:32:20

I have asked before about the definition of 'poverty'.
When I googled it I came up with a household whose income (after housing expenses) is less than 60% of the average UK income, which is around £27,000.

So any household bringing in less than £16,200 after housing costs is officially in poverty.

No wonder there are so many. It doesn't seem a particularly low amount to me, especially as if the family has children they'll get other benefits.

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Gracesgran Sat 23-May-15 17:24:06

This article reports that "Almost a third (33%) of the UK population - 19.3 million people - fell below the official poverty line at some point between 2010 and 2013, according to figures released by the Office for National Statistics."

It carries on to say that this is higher than average across the EU but persistent poverty is lower in the UK. However persistent poverty is most likely to affect pensioners " with almost 40% of those aged 65 and over in the UK doing so at least once between 2010 and 2013, compared with around 30% of those under 65."

With the new, single tier pension, when paid in full, being paid on the poverty level for pensioners - equivalent to the old full basic pension plus the Pension Guarantee - I wonder how this can ever change.

I really wish there was a Pensioners Union working for a Living Pension.

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