Technical Notes 2022, Issue 22 - East Dunbartonshire Child Poverty Report and Plan 2021-22 - Statistical Insight

The purpose of this Technical Note is to provide additional information on child poverty, and also households without home internet access in East Dunbartonshire.  This note follows on from Report PNCA/107/21/KA which on 16 December 2021 obtained the approval to support East Dunbartonshire Child Poverty Report and Plan 2021-22.

Data detailed below provides greater statistical insight into the levels of child poverty within East Dunbartonshire.   Further, it also adds greater insight into the levels of households without home internet access in East Dunbartonshire.

1. Less than 10% should be living in relative poverty (how many families are on low incomes compared with middle income households)

This release contains annual official statistics on the number of children living in Relative and Absolute low income families by local area across the United Kingdom. These statistics replace earlier official statistics previously published by DWP (Children in out-of-work benefit households) and HMRC (Personal tax credits: Children in low-income families local measure). The new statistics provide a more coherent picture of children living in low income families by local area.

Figures are calibrated to the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) survey 3-year regional averages of children living in low income households but provide more granular local area information not available in HBAI.

Source for Number and Percentage of Children living in Relative low income families in East Dunbartonshire 2020

* Children are defined as dependent individuals aged under 16 years old.

** 2020 figures are provisional

1. Less than 5% should be living in absolute poverty (how may low income families are not seeing their living standards improving over time)

This release contains annual official statistics on the number of children living in Relative and Absolute low income families by local area across the United Kingdom. These statistics replace earlier official statistics previously published by DWP (Children in out-of-work benefit households) and HMRC (Personal tax credits: Children in low-income families local measure). The new statistics provide a more coherent picture of children living in low income families by local area.

Figures are calibrated to the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) survey 3-year regional averages of children living in low income households but provide more granular local area information not available in HBAI.

Source for Number and Percentage of Children living in Absolute low income families in East Dunbartonshire

 *Children are defined as dependent individuals aged under 16 years old.

** 2020 are provisional figures

2. Less than 5% should be living with combined low income and material deprivation (how many lower income families cannot afford the necessities)

The ‘limited resources’ measure looks at children in families that have both low income and cannot afford three or more out of a list of 22 basic necessities. The list of necessities was developed for a Scottish context and is based on what stakeholders and the public agree is a basic necessity and what satisfies statistical requirements for a robust measure of limited resources. Families are defined as being on a low income if the household income is below 70% of the Scottish median income (this may be calculated before or after housing costs).

These statistics are based on analysis of the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) and provide estimates of the proportion of children in families with limited resources by council area, health board and a number of household and housing characteristics.

Notably, The ‘limited resources’ local measure is not strictly comparable to the official national-level statistics on 'children in combined low income and material deprivation'. These statistics provide the national headline figure which informs one of the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act targets. The national headline figure is based on data from the Family Resources Survey which does not allow local breakdowns due to sample size.

Source for Percentage of children who live in families with limited resources in East Dunbartonshire 

It should be noted that due to methodological changes, the figures in this new release are not directly comparable with those in the first release for 2014-2016.

3. Less than 5% should be living in persistent poverty (how many families live on low incomes three years out of four)

The Scottish Government data source for Persistent Poverty is from Understanding Society Survey, data which is not available at local authority level without Special Licence Access from the UK Data Service

(Visit Uk Data Service's webpage, Understanding Society)    

4. Children in Low Income Families (Relative Low Income)

The statistics in the table below relate to the number and proportion of children living in low income families by local area across the United Kingdom. These statistics are a measure of children and cannot be used to obtain the number of low income families.

The Children in low-income families' local area statistics (CiLIF), provides information on the number and proportion of children living in relative low income by local area across the United Kingdom.

Statistics on the number of children (by age) in low income families by financial year are published on Stat-Xplore. Figures are calibrated to the Households Below Average Income (HBAI) survey regional estimates of children in low income but provide more granular local area information not available from the HBAI for example by Local Authority, Parliamentary Constituency and Ward.

Relative low-income is defined as a family whose equivalised income is below 60 per cent of contemporary median income. Gross income measure is Before Housing Costs (BHC) and includes contributions from earnings, state support and pensions.

Source for number of children in low income families from years 2015 to 2020 in East Dunbartonshire

*provisional figures

Households Internet Access

Source: Scottish Household Survey 2019

Further information is available from Evonne Bauer, Executive Officer, Place & Community Planning, or Pam Campbell, Community Planning and Partnership Team Leader.