United Kingdom
Lacking essentials
Key points
- Many people on low incomes say that they cannot afford selected essential items or activities - but so do quite a lot of people on average incomes.
- The essential items that are mostly commonly lacking are those which are directly money-related.
- In 1999, two-fifths of all households lacked one or more essentials and a fifth lacked three or more.
Graph 1: By item/activity (2005/06)
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Graph 2: By item/activity (1999)
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Graph 3: By group
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Graph 4: By number
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Why this indicator was originally chosen
The consequences of income poverty are that people cannot afford goods, services and activities which are deemed to be essential in contemporary society. This indicator examines the extent to which households lack such essentials.
Definitions and data sources
The graphs in this indicator look at the proportion of households who 'do not have because they cannot afford' particular kinds of 'essential' items and activities. 'Do not have because they cannot afford' means that the households lacks the item/activity due to hardship rather than choice. 'Essential' means that more than half of the population consider the item/activity to be a necessity in contemporary society.
The first graph provides an analysis of the 2005/06 Family Resources Survey. For each of a selected number of items/activities, it shows the proportion of households who 'do not have it because they cannot afford it', with the data shown separately for households in the poorest fifth and for households on average incomes. The data relates to the United Kingdom. Household income is disposable household income after deducting housing costs, where the income has been equivalised (adjusted) to account for differences in household size and composition.
The second to fourth graphs provides an analysis of a once-off survey entitled Millennium Survey of Poverty and Social Exclusion, 1999 which asked questions about thirty five essential items/activities.
For each of the thirty five essential items/activities, the second graph shows the proportion of households who 'do not have it because they cannot afford it'.
The third graph groups these thirty five items into six groups, namely money-related, clothes, activities, related to the home, food and consumer durables. For each group, the graph shows the average proportion of households who 'do not have because they cannot afford' an item/activity in the group. So, for example, the 2.4% figure for 'food' is the average of the 4.1%, 3.3%, 1.7% and 0.5% proportions for 'fresh fruit and vegetables daily', 'roast joint/vegetarian equivalent once a week', 'meat, fish or vegetarian equivalent every other day' and 'two meals a day' from the first graph.
The fourth graph shows the proportion of households who lack because they cannot afford a particular number of essential items/activities. So, for example, 22% of households lack at least three of the items/activities.
The data in the second to fourth graphs relates to Great Britain.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: limited. The data is subjective and, as illustrated in the first graph, many households with average incomes nevertheless say that they cannot afford essential items/activities.
External links
- See the Joseph Rowntree Foundation 2000 report entitled Poverty and social exclusion in Britain.
- See the Family Budget Unit site.
Relevant 2007 Public Service Agreements
Overall aim: Halve the number of children in poverty by 2010-11, on the way to eradicating child poverty by 2020.
Lead department
HM Treasury.
Official national targets
Reduce by a half the number of children living in relative low-income by 2010/11.
Other indicators of progress
Number of children in absolute low-income households.
Number of children in relative low-income households and in material deprivation.
Previous 2004 targets
Halve the number of children in relative low-income households between 1998/99 and 2010/11, on the way to eradicating child poverty by 2020, including:
- reducing the proportion of children in workless households by 5% between spring 2005 and spring 2008; and
- increasing the proportion of parents with care on Income Support and income-based Jobseeker's Allowance who receive maintenance for their children by 65% by March 2008.
Relevant government policies
- National minimum wage
- Tax credits and their predecessors
- Increases in child benefit
- Pension credit and its predecessors
- Second state pension
The numbers
All numbers are as shown in the graphs.