Poverty and social exclusion in Wales: new report shows unemployment, education and child poverty no better

Using the latest official data published this spring, the overall picture on poverty is mixed. On the positive side, child poverty has fallen from 36% in the late 1990s (significantly higher than the UK average) to 28% (just under the UK average), though there have been no improvements since 2003/04.

Pensioner poverty is also down markedly, from 26% to 20%, especially among single pensioners. But among adults of working age, the fall has been much smaller with 350,000 working-age adults remaining in poverty – more than the joint totals of children and pensioners. Worse still, the proportion of disabled working-age adults in poverty has risen, from 30% in the mid 1990s to the current level of 33%.

Commenting on the figures, report co-author Guy Palmer said, “The lack of recent progress on poverty is not confined to Wales. The UK-wide figures for 2005/06 are the first in nine years to show a rise in poverty, with increases for both children and adults.”

Looking beyond income, other key points in the new report concern unemployment, education and vulnerable children, revealing:

• unemployment among young adults remains a major problem, with the rate still standing at around 10%, more than twice that for those aged over 25;
• the overall rate of unemployment was slightly higher in 2006 than in 2005;
• among those who are out of work but not officially classified as ‘unemployed’, more than a fifth of both disabled people and lone parents want but lack paid work and both these proportions have been rising since 2004;
• Wales remains a low-pay economy – 13% of male and 19% of female full-time workers were paid less than £6.50 an hour in 2005/06 (around a quarter more than in England);
• among part-time workers, 48% are paid less than £6.50 an hour in Wales (compared with 42% in England);
• a quarter of 19-year-olds lack NVQ2 or equivalent qualifications, a proportion unchanged this decade (evidence suggests that if someone fails to reach this level by age 19, they are very unlikely to reach let alone surpass it in their 20s and beyond);
• around 10% of 16- to 18-year-olds are not in employment, education or training;
• more than 15% of children live in workless households and more than 20% live with a disabled parent.

Report co-author Peter Kenway said, “Wales stands out within the UK for its high rates of working-age sickness and disability. Given how many children are disadvantaged by this, the new Assembly Government should take the lead in developing a comprehensive anti-poverty strategy that includes working-age adults as well as pensioners and children.”