Embargo: for publication after 12 noon Thursday 5th December 2002 Poverty levels remain high in Scotland despite falling unemployment

Despite falling unemployment and some improvement in educational qualifications, at 1.2 million people the number shown by the latest figures to be living in low-income households in Scotland is slightly higher than five years ago. The latest available figures show the number of children in such households has not changed since 1997, in contrast to the rest of Britain where it has declined.

This mixed picture of progress in tackling poverty and social exclusion in Scotland emerges in an independent monitoring report compiled by the New Policy Institute for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Bringing together data chosen to reflect particular Scottish concerns and issues, it sets out information for 34 different indicators, ranging from low income, health and education to housing conditions, community safety and participation in elections.

The report considers policy issues that are ‘reserved’ to the Westminster Parliament as well as those that are devolved to Holyrood. Comparing the most recently-available statistics with equivalent figures for the mid and late 1990s, it shows that:

• Between 1997/8 and 2000/1 the proportion of people in Scotland living in households with less than 60 per cent of median income after deducting housing costs - the most commonly-used poverty threshold - rose slightly from 21.5 to 23.5 per cent. The proportion of children whose families had relatively low incomes remained at 30 per cent. Just under a quarter of pensioners were in low-income households with signs that the proportion was declining.
• Although unemployment fell, there was an increase in the number of ‘working poor’ households where one or more adults had a low-paid job. In 2000/1, 40 per cent of households with incomes below the poverty threshold included a working adult and 40 per cent were ‘economically inactive’: these included non-working lone parents and people classified as long-term sick and disabled. Only 20 per cent included an adult officially defined as ‘unemployed’.
• By the spring 2002, there were nearly 210,000 households that included working-age adults who had been without work for three or more years – the highest number for ten or more years.
• More than half all school leavers in Scotland went on to further or higher education in 2000/1 compared with 40 per cent a decade earlier. The number of young people leaving school with a Standard Grade 1 or 2 as their highest qualification rose in five years from 16 per cent to 24 per cent in 2001, while the proportion only reaching Standard Grade 3 or 4 fell. Yet the ‘attainment gap’ widened because there was no reduction after 1998/9 in the number of low achievers gaining Standard Grades 5 and 6 or leaving school without any qualifications.
• There was progress in tackling the causes of premature death, especially among men. The death-rate among men aged 65 in 2000 was more than a fifth lower than it had been a decade earlier. Even so, health inequalities across Scotland persisted: a map in the report shows that Standardised Mortality Rates in the 10 per cent most deprived local areas are double those of the least disadvantaged 50 per cent.
• Around 1,300 babies born in 2001 were underweight. This indicator, which is associated with a higher risk of health problems in later life, has not improved in a decade. The number of suicides among young people aged 15 to 24 has also remained the same at around 120 deaths a year.
• Housing conditions have improved, including a decline over just four years in the number of homes without central heating from 17 per cent to 8 per cent in 1999/2000. The equivalent figures for housing for low-income households also showed a large fall from 23 to 13 per cent. The number of households assessed as homeless or potentially homeless, however, has increased, affecting 34,000 families in 1999/2000.
• Across a range of topics, from lack of access to basic financial services and products, to fear of walking alone in the neighbourhood at night, people with lower incomes or from manual backgrounds are more likely to report problems than others.

Peter Kenway, director of the New Policy Institute and an author of the report, said: “Of the 34 indicators that we constructed for Scotland, seven, like those for educational attainment, show improvement over five years, while six, including income inequality, have worsened. Disappointingly, the 15 indicators that have held steady include the number of children living in low-income families. As a result, the levels of child poverty in Scotland are now similar to those in England and Wales where they have fallen somewhat since 1999.”

Steven Fuller, co-author of the report, said: “Although the total number of jobs in Scotland has increased over the last two years, the number of jobs in industry, construction and agriculture fell by 10 per cent. Since the ability of families to stay above the poverty line increasingly depends on having two earners, it may be that the loss of predominantly male, manual jobs from these sectors is one of the reasons why the levels of poverty have remained stubbornly high in recent years.”

Note to Editors
Monitoring poverty and social exclusion in Scotland by Peter Kenway, Steven Fuller, Mohibur Rahman, Cathy Street and Guy Palmer is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and is available from York Publishing Services, 64 Hallfield Road, York YO31 7ZQ (01904 430033), price £16.95 plus £2.00 p&p.

A summary of findings from the report is available here.

For further information, contact:
Peter Kenway (author) 020-7721 8421 (office)
Steven Fuller (author) 020-7721 8421 (office)

Issued by David Utting, Associate Director (Public Affairs) 020-7278 9665 /  / david.utting@jrf.org.uk