6. Poverty by individual characteristics

Age

For most years since 2008, the persistent poverty rate has been highest among those aged 65 or over. However, the rate for this age group has been falling since 2010, and in 2014 was 9.1%, the same rate as those aged under-18. Those aged 18 to 64 had the lowest persistent poverty rate in 2014, of 4.7%.

Figure 8: Persistent poverty rate by age group, UK, 2014, percentage individuals Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 8: Persistent poverty rate by age group, UK, 2014, percentage individuals Image .csv .xls

Looking at the years spent in relative low income for different age groups, 41% of those aged 65 or over were at risk of poverty at least once between 2011 and 2014, compared with 29% of those aged 18 to 64 and 34% of under-18s. The difference is accounted for in part by those spending only 1 year in poverty; 22% for those aged 65 and over compared with 12% for the under-65s. However, those spending all 4 years in poverty also contribute to the difference; 6% of those aged 65 and over were in poverty in all 4 years compared with 3% and 4% for the 18 to 64 and under-18 groups respectively.

Figure 9: Years in poverty in the UK by age group, 2011 to 2014, percentage individuals Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 9: Years in poverty in the UK by age group, 2011 to 2014, percentage individuals Image .csv .xls

Gender

Women have consistently had a higher persistent poverty rate than men. The gap between the two has remained relatively stable over the past 6 years in the UK.

Figure 10: Persistent poverty rate by gender, UK, 2014, percentage individuals Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 10: Persistent poverty rate by gender, UK, 2014, percentage individuals Image .csv .xls

This trend of higher levels of persistent poverty for women compared with men is seen in most other EU countries. In fact, only 4 out of the 28 countries reported lower levels of persistent poverty for women in 2014: Romania, Belgium, Poland and Hungary; and 3 reported the same levels: Portugal, Germany and the Czech Republic. Austria was the country with the highest difference, reporting levels of persistent poverty for women 3.8 percentage points higher than for men. The average across the EU was 0.8 percentage points.

Figure 11: Difference between female and male persistent poverty rates, EU, 2014 Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Notes: For Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia and Sweden 2013 persistent poverty rates are used since these are the latest available for these countries. No persistent poverty estimates are available for Ireland. Download this chart Figure 11: Difference between female and male persistent poverty rates, EU, 2014 Image .csv .xls

When looking at the percentage of people at risk of poverty at least once in the last 4 years, the differences between men and women are relatively small, with 31.9% of men experiencing poverty at least once between 2011 and 2014 compared with 33.1% of women.

There were slightly larger differences in the percentage of people who were in poverty for 3 or more years in this period, with 9.8% of women compared with 7.7% of men.

Figure 12: Years in poverty in the UK by gender, 2011 to 2014, percentage individuals Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 12: Years in poverty in the UK by gender, 2011 to 2014, percentage individuals Image .csv .xls

Given that a co-habiting man and woman would have the same household disposable income, these differences in persistent poverty rates by gender come largely from differences among single-adult households. Single-adult households with dependent children are far more likely to contain women (ONS, 2014) and, as can be seen in the next section, are also more likely to be in persistent poverty.

Household type

Households with dependent children have a slightly higher persistent poverty rate (6.9%) than households without dependent children (6.1%) in 2014. However, the largest differences between different household types were for single-adult households compared with those with 2 or more adults. Single-person households, both with and without dependent children, have consistently higher rates of persistent poverty than households with 2 or more adults.

The threshold for being at risk of poverty in 2014 was a disposable income of £9,956 for a single-person household without children. For a household with 2 adults and 2 children (under 14), this threshold equated to an (unequivalised) disposable income of £20,907.

Figure 13i: Persistent poverty rates by household composition, UK, 2014 i. Households with dependent children Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 13i: Persistent poverty rates by household composition, UK, 2014 Image .csv .xls

Figure 13ii: Persistent poverty rates by household composition, UK, 2014 ii. Households without dependent children Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 13ii: Persistent poverty rates by household composition, UK, 2014 Image .csv .xls

The number of years spent in poverty between 2011 and 2014 also varied by the type of household people were living in (Figure 14). Single-parent households were more likely to experience poverty than other households, with nearly half (48%) in poverty at least once and around a third (33%) in poverty for 2 or more years in the period.

Single-adult households without children were also more likely to experience poverty than households with 2 or more adults; just over 40% of single adult households experienced poverty at least once in the period, compared with less than 30% for households with 2 or more adults.

Comparing single adult households with households with 2 or more adults (both with and without dependent children), those experiencing poverty in single-adult households tended to experience it for longer.

Figure 14: Years in poverty in the UK by household type, 2011 to 2014, percentage individuals ` Source: Office for National Statistics, Eurostat Download this chart Figure 14: Years in poverty in the UK by household type, 2011 to 2014, percentage individuals Image .csv .xls

Education level

The number of years spent in relative low income also varied by education level, consistent with other research (for example, Serafino & Tonkin, 2014), highlighting a strong relationship between educational attainment and poverty. Over 4 in 10 people (43%) who left education without any formal qualifications (below GCSE level) were at risk of poverty at least once between 2011 and 2014, twice the percentage of those with a degree or higher.

Additionally, among those who did experience relative low income, those with degree-level qualifications or above were also far more likely to experience it for only a short period of 1 or 2 years (86%), compared with those with medium (77%) or low (65%) levels of educational attainment.