Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 19 October 2006.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average weekly income was of the three poorest deciles of pensioners in each of the last 20 years.
Specific information regarding low income for Great Britain is available in "Households Below Average Income 1994/95-2004/05". The threshold of below 60 per cent. contemporary median income is the most commonly used in reporting trends in low income.
The survey from which estimates are provided started in 1994-95. There is no suitable data source for years prior to 1994-95.
The median weekly household income of the three lowest deciles of pensioners for the years 1994-95 to 2004-05, are presented in table 1.
Table 1: Median weekly household income in pounds per week equivalised, of pensioners in the lowest three deciles—1994-95 to 2004-05, after housing costs | |||
Decile 1 | Decile 2 | Decile 3 | |
1994-95 | 93 | 122 | 136 |
1995-96 | 98 | 123 | 137 |
1996-97 | 100 | 126 | 141 |
1997-98 | 101 | 128 | 143 |
1998-99 | 102 | 130 | 147 |
1999-2000 | 106 | 137 | 155 |
2000-01 | 113 | 145 | 165 |
2001-02 | 116 | 153 | 176 |
2002-03 | 122 | 159 | 184 |
2003-04 | 121 | 167 | 191 |
2004-05 | 130 | 177 | 203 |
Notes: 1. Median weekly household incomes are shown as equivalised pounds in 2004-05 prices. Equivalisation is the process by which household income is adjusted by household size and composition as a proxy for material living standards. 2. The median has been used as the measure of the average income in the three lowest deciles in line with HBAI conventions. This median measure is preferred to the mean because it measures the central income of the group and for the lowest decile it is less influenced by possibly unrepresentative outliers. 3. All estimates are subject to sampling error and response bias and small changes between years may be influenced by these. While results for individual years may be sensitive to the way in which household incomes are adjusted for size and composition, the picture of changes over time is less sensitive to this. Source: |
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