Poverty facts

• 51 per cent of children in inner London live in income poverty, compared with 29 per cent in England (1)
  
  
• a quarter of all children in London live in workless households, the highest proportion of any of the English regions. In inner London, one in three children lives in a workless household, compared with one in six nationally (2)
  
  
• in London, seven out of 10 workless households with children are lone parent households (3)
  
  
• there are 244,000 unemployed people in London, more than in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland put together (130,000, 76,000 and 30,000 respectively) (4)
  
  
• one in four children in inner London nursery and primary schools is entitled to free school meals, compared with fewer than one in five nationally (5)
  
  
• more than one in three (35 per cent) children in inner London live in families with at least one adult claiming a key benefit, compared with an average of 18 per cent nationally (6)
  
  
• the proportion of children living in workless households in London has fallen by just one percentage point in the last 10 years, compared with a 4 per cent fall in the UK as a whole (7)
  
  
• 22 per cent of pensioners in London live in income poverty, compared with 17 per cent in the UK as a whole (8)
  

Sources

(1) Table 4.6 (below 60 per cent median income after housing costs) Households below average income, DWP, April 2007
(2) Table 3(iii) Work and worklessness among households, ONS, Aug 2007
(3) GLA data management and analysis group, Child Poverty in London: 2007 update
(4) Labour Market Statistics, ONS, Nov 2007
(5) Focus on London 2007, table 2.17 ONS/GLA
(6) ibid (figure 4.4)
(7) ibid (table 4.8)
(8) DMAG update: Poverty figures for London 2005/06, summary data from the households below average income series, GLA March 2007