The Government has high-profile child poverty targets which are assessed using a measure of income, as recorded in the Household Below Average Income series (HBAI). However, income is an imperfect measure of living standards. Previous analysis suggests that some children in households with low income do not have commensurately low living standards. This report aims to document the extent to which this is true, focusing on whether children in low-income households have different living standards depending on whether their parents are employed, self-employed, or workless.
A technical annexe accompanying the paper can be viewed here.
Authors
Mike Brewer
Gillian Paull
Research Fellow
Luke is a Research Fellow at the IFS and his general research interests include education policy, political economy and poverty and inequality.
Research Associate Yale University
Cormac is a Research Associate of the IFS, an Assistant Professor of Economics at the Yale University and Research Fellow at the NBER.
Report details
- Publisher
- DWP
Suggested citation
Brewer, M et al. (2009). The living standards of families with children reporting low incomes. London: DWP. Available at: https://ifs.org.uk/publications/living-standards-families-children-reporting-low-incomes (accessed: 1 July 2024).
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